The Battle of the Mariana Island
by jeffs123456
Summary: How did the Abyssals sweep the worlds navies from the sea? How did the Shipgirls help them? A stort set very early in the Abyssal War.
1. Chapter 1

Kantai Collection fanfic

How did the Abyssals drive the world's navies from the oceans?

The Battle of the Mariana Islands

Note: meters will be used by the Japanese. Feet/miles by the US forces (who will also use meters on occasion. I know this is confusing, but so is real life.)

Note: this began as a 200-400 word flashback in a different story, but grew into this…

 **Prologue**

Time: 6 weeks after the first recorded appearance of the Abyssals and Kanmusu.

Abyssal attacks have been, until 10 days ago, scattered, but worldwide, and mostly unrecorded. Ships, generally, would signal after an explosion and while they were sinking, they might mention a weird, frightening black whale, and then they vanished.

Attacks on first world warships were always by surprise. Their modern electronics gave them no warning, before the any attack and no warnings after any attacks, for that matter. Most of the attacks were quickly hidden under "military secrets". Until an origin for the Abyssals could be determined, everybody is keeping any details hidden.

Satellites can see wakes, but no ships. No transmissions are recorded. Underwater mics that can hear anything in the water for miles, hear nothing.

Some form of Super Stealth is assumed.

10 days ago, things changed.

First an Abyssal task force sailed into Tokyo Bay.

Where they were met by a force of Kanmusu. Kongo and a mixed bag of DDs. The Kanmusu won that encounter, but only by a desperate summoning of reinforcements. Akagi's First Strike was devastating. This was their Public debut. Previous mentions of them were downplayed and hidden under "state secret" The Kanmusu's naming of the attackers as Abyssals and the naming structure the Kanmusu use for the different types becomes an instant hit.

Most of US 7th Fleet and JMSDF were at sea chasing sightings and searching for survivors of previous attacks. The US and JMSDF installations were the primary targets of the raid. Between surprise and damage their records of the attack are fragmentary.

No doubt, in time, they can be sorted out and mined for useful data, is the common thought, as the overnight reports were filled with unknowns. Most analysts, though, are at a total loss. This is Tokyo, even with no military sensors, there should be plenty of data, but there is nothing.

They can see the Kanmusu, but no data on the Abyssals, until the Kanmusu killed them. Parts of the dead whale-things are being examined, but the scientists working on them are going, literally, insane working on the poisonous things.

There are plenty of eyewitness stories and some? photos, but they make little sense. Eyewitness reports that there are unknown multicolored 'shells' of energy visible, temporarily, around the Abyssals and the Kanmusu that appear at random. Since eyewitness accounts are notoriously wrong, they are discounted and/or ignored.

Best guess is that the Abyssals have some kind of super stealth.

Second a different task force appeared, at the same time, off Guam.

This task force surprised and destroyed the base, sinking a couple of subs in port there. The DD's and Coast Guard ships, based at Guam came back to port, from hunting for a missing ship, they were, even though they were at General Quarters, surprised and destroyed.

Abyssal aircraft made their debut here. They are described as a flying wedge with teeth and a cannon. They destroyed most of the larger planes on the ground, while shooting down anything flying. One B-2 forward deployed, due the previous Abyssal attacks, is destroyed. No apparent damage was done to the Abyssal planes.

A couple of the Abyssal whale-things appeared to be injured, but escaped. Again like Tokyo, while there are no electronic records, there are eyewitness stories. Again, some photos exist, but there is problems, unknown problems, with any upload.

The black whale-things can be seem around the island, patrolling, but they do not show up on any sensor platform.

This Abyssal task force started a blockade of Guam and Saipan. The Abyssal warplanes shoot down everything landing. Attempts at locating and bombing, via B-2's, the Abyssals floundered against their stealth. Any ship leaving is sunk.

Again, the best guess was some form of super stealth.

Open attacks by Abyssals, during the next few days, occurred all over the world. Targets: Kings Bay, USA. Clyde, UK. Ile Lounge, France. Sanya, China. Gadzhiyevo and Vilyuchinsk, Russia. Abyssals took losses in these raids, especially when they appeared on land However, the Abyssals were going for the world's Ballistic Submarines and their support infrastructure, and given the secrecy around them, no one is sure what happened.

No one knows how successful the Abyssals considered the raids.

The world suddenly realized it was at war.

A war of unknown duration and intensity. Adapting from a peacetime routine to a wartime routine is happening, but… That does not happen overnight

US 7th Fleet is ordered to Guam to break the blockade and defeat the Abyssals. It is felt that in a set piece battle, against an un-surprised 7th Fleet, that the Abyssals would be defeated. Given the massively changed world situation, however, a new mission was added, guard an evacuation convoy from Guam to Tokyo, using shipping already at Guam.

7th Fleet downloads emergency updates, tests and calibrates its sensors against a Kanmusu volunteer. Japan orders an evacuation of their citizens from Saipan and Guam, to be held in coordination with 7th Fleet. They send, which travels with 7th Fleet, JMSDF DD _Kurama_ with an ad hoc DesRon of 6 Kanmusu DD. Kisaragi, Nenohi, Arare, Mitsuki, Yayoi and Fubuki (Flagship).

7th Fleet has timed the trip, so their final approach to Guam would be during the day.

 **Chapter 1: Introduction**

On the USS

 ** _Ronald Reagan_**

Early morning, after one day at sea, Admiral Scott, the Commander of the 7th Fleet, asks his Communications Officer, "How are the Japanese Girls doing? We have been traveling for hours, will they need a rest?"

The officer shakes his head, "From the messages they've sent each other, they are enjoying the trip." He smiles. "They have argued about what to call our ships, they wanted call them cruisers due to their size, Fubuki said they would use destroyers even it if was silly. They all hate the fact they only have one or two cannon."

He shrugs, "No one has mentioned any fatigue, although they are talking about some new facility they call "the docks" that was made for them." He shrugs, "Japan must have hidden it under a bunch of secrecy, I could not find where or what they were talking about. And they wondering about the food, fuel and ammo on stored on the Kurama."

"Any problems with them? They look so young."

"There is some communication issues. Luckily English was the IJN's second language, so they all speak it, though a couple have really bad accents. We have plenty of people that can understand their Japanese, so there isn't a real problem. Their WWII era radios can not hear some of our signals and we have removed the basic encryption from our signals and are sending them in the clear to make sure they understand us. They have, while not to us, to themselves, complained about the 'beeping' from our signals as the computers are talking to each other. Although, that seems to clearing up." He shrugs, "An adaptability issue? Unknown."

He snorts, "They gave them new smartphones, nice idea, but. One forgot it, one accidently crushed hers, two have dropped theirs into the sea, one girl acts as if it's evil magic and will not touch it. Fubuki still has hers, and she, somehow, has it set on silent, so in order to get her to answer it we have to radio her, first."

The Admiral rubs his face, "I'm afraid of friendly fire. If they are like that."

The commo officer nods, "Fubuki is, also, aware and concerned about it. Given how spread out we are compared to them, she is planning to stay concentrated, and out of the line of sight to reduce the odds. She has been keeping them on focus and going over convoy protection."

"So they did make the Flagship a responsible girl, first impressions aside." The Admiral snorts, "Of course, given Fubuki's history, she would be concerned with it. Her torpedoes missed other the Japanese ships at Sunda Strait, but that was luck."

The Communication Officer chuckles, "Her tripping and stumbling when we started looked hilarious, didn't it."

"Perhaps." The Admiral says in an icy voice. "Staff meeting in fifteen minutes." He orders.

 **At the meeting.**

"Scouting?"

"We've got a cloud of long range drones around us," The Reagan's Air Group Captain replies, "The Hawkeyes are up. Cap is up. ASW Helicopters are in the air. AWACS is in the area. Anything that happens within several hundred miles we will know. Given the known problems with radar, and I do not trust the patches required to target something as small as the Shipgirls, I've gone with IR guided missiles and gun pods." He shrugs, "We know guns work and I'm confident that the IR will work."

The Captain clears his throat, "A fleet of KC-135's is circling behind us, so refueling can be handled by them. The only time our birds must land today is to rearm. Another fleet of large passenger planes will be following them. They will land on Guam, after we clear the skies."

"I approve." The Admiral states.

The room nods.

"Sensors?"

"We are double checking the new patches every three hours. We have figured out the 'ghost' with radar." His Chief of Staff replies.

"It is?"

"Her heartbeat. Every time it beats her radar returns shows her WWII hull instead of the what we see."

The Admiral nods, "That does explain the shifting image. Signals? I heard that there's a problem?"

"It's not an actual problem, sir. It's more weirdness than anything else."

"And it is?"

The Electronic Warfare Officer sighs, "When we examine their transmissions on a second by second basis, things get weird. The actual radio signals are in Morse Code, actually the Wabon version of it, but we hear them speak. The voice has the same voiceprint, even."

He looks around the room. The officers have the disbelieving look common when talking about the shipgirls or the Abyssals.

"Breaking it down, we have tried to find where and how our system changes the Morse to voice, but we can not find it. Even step, even circuit has been checked and rechecked and it is still unknown. Sir."

The Admiral takes a deep breath, "Continue investigating." He looks over the room. "And the others?"

"Infrared still shows that her ahh. backpack,"

"Rigging" another officer supplies

"Thank you. Her rigging shows up beautifully. How she can wear it and not have 3rd degree burns remains a question." He shrugs. "But people have touched it, and they only reported only cool metal, so I'm more than a bit confused. More tests are to be done at Tokyo while we are gone."

The room chuckles at the confused statement, everyone is confused about the appearance and the science behind the Abyssals and Kanmusu.

The Communication officer coughs into his hand, "That will be delayed. Kongo took herself and most the remaining shipgirls out for a familiarization and gunnery tour of the southern Japanese Islands, this morning. She was not impressed with their performance at Tokyo Bay."

The room nods. The Shipgirls performance was great, but was littered with, what everybody could see, inexperience. The Shipgirls just have not had the time and training to adapt to the new human shape, luckily that inexperience was also seen with the Abyssals.

"Magnetics?"

"She shows up as 2,000 plus tons of steel. Explanation, none."

"Sonar?"

"She sounds like a ship. Again, no explanation. One of the sonarman found some WWII recordings and she sounds 'very close' in his words."

The Admiral nods, "It sounds like we are ready. Remind the attack subs that I want them to stay close, there are too many unknowns for them to go it alone." His tone softens, "I known that Guam is their base and they want revenge, but let's do it as a team, not lone wolfing it."

"Yes, Sir." The chief of staff says softly. The crews of the attack subs are beside themselves do to concern over their loved ones on the island and a desire for revenge for the couple of subs that were destroyed, as well as shock over what happened as King's Bay. The rumors from there are frightening.

The Admiral continues "Remember, the planes that hit Guam sounded like single engine prop aircraft. There has been no kills, so. If they are single engine props and given the Shipgirls stated history and origin, we are facing a WWII carrier and her escorts. She will have the same mobility we have, so maintain a 360 search. We should spot her scout planes first, so warn the Hawkeyes and CAP." The Air Group Captain nods.

"We will sound General Quarters at 400 miles out, if we do not do it earlier."

 **Two hundred miles from Guam.**

The sea is reasonably calm for the Western Pacific and the skies are partly cloudy, no real storms are in the area. A perfect day for a battle. A similar, if more cloudy day, is predicted for tomorrow.

"Sir! I've got a call from Fubuki for you!" A communication rating calls to the Admiral.

"Fubuki?"

"Admiral, I can see an Abyssal Dive Bomber. It is at my 3 o'clock and is approximately 6 or 7 thousand meters high." She pauses, "How did I know what it was?" she asks herself in wonderment.

The Admiral looks at the radar officers, who shakes his head. He does not see it on his screen.

"Fubuki, we don't see it." He says gently.

"Sir" She earnestly says, "I can see it! It is turning and following us! It must be a scout."

"Fubuki, I'm sorry but."

Fubuki interrupts him, "Please sir. My last Admiral did not listen to his lookouts and sailed us into an ambush! I had hoped, when I heard that your name was Scott, you'd be equal to the Admiral that led the forces that killed me." She finishes in a whisper.

A pause. "Sir?" Fubuki asks in a quiet voice. "I know it is bad manners to interrupt and I apologize. It's."

"It's OK, Fubuki." He says in a soft voice. "We should be getting some contacts. Our scouts are over and beyond Guam, now. I think something is wrong."

He turns to the room, "Double check, everything! We are missing something. Send the CAP to visually search that area, now!"

minutes later.

"Reagan." The CAP pilot states. "I've got problems, here. I've got nothing on my scopes, but I saw a glint of sunlight off metal up here. There is something up here, I feel it." His cracks, "I just felt as if somebody walked over my grave." He whispers. A pause, "I've lost that glint, now. It flew into a cloud. Searching. Over."

"Sir! I've rechecked everything." The radar operator says, "I can see Fubuki and the others, like normal, but I still have nothing else on the screen."

"Shit." Someone in the room says.

"Fubuki." The Admiral says, "You did everything right, thank you. Since your eyes appear to be working better than our radar, please tell us of any more sightings."

"Thank you, Sir!" Fubuki replies in a heartfelt tone.

"We are going to have to rethink some things here, Fubuki. But, I think we are going to have to move you and your girls. Start thinking about that and we'll get back to you."

"Sir! Of course." Click.

"OK, people, ideas?" The Admiral asks.

Silence.

"I think we need some people on deck with binoculars, sir." the radar operator says. "I'm useless as far as I can tell."

A pause. "Do it." The Admiral orders. "Get Washington on the line. They might have something."

 **175 miles from Guam**

Mutsuki calls, "I've got a contact!"

This time the CAP fighter reports seeing a flying wedge, with a jaw and teeth on the underside and a cannon, before it fades into a cloud. The pilot, also, feels 'creepy' around the Abyssal.

Contacts become more common.

 **100 miles from Guam**

Although the 7th fleet has rebooted and updated everything, Fubuki and her Shipgirls plus people with binoculars are still reporting contacts. They will shoot at them, every so often, but after Mutsuki, Kisaragi and Yayoi all mention how bad their AA was against the planes that sunk them, even that is limited to a couple of rounds, more to point out the contact then any real attempt to kill them.

Like before, CAP pilots can, occasionally, catch glints and attempts at interceptions, but no prolonged contact is made as they fly into clouds.

Fubuki and the other Shipgirls are now intermixed with the US ships.

The effect is still unexplained. The command staff and experts at Washington are locked in various arguments. Super stealth vs a computer virus vs super nanotech vs magic...

"Sir!" One of the ratings says, "I've got something on Global Hawk number 4, that you need to see!"

The Admiral's aide changes the big screen to the feed from the Global Hawk. "It is about 400 miles north, north west of us. It is covering our back trail." He mentions as everyone looks at the screen.

It takes a minute, before the Admiral speaks, "Those are wakes, six of them."

"Where are ships?" Another whispers. "We can see the growing wakes, but where are the ships that are making them?"

"Anything else?" The Admiral asks.

"Negative on radar and IR, sir. You can only see it, sir." the rating replies softly.

The room is silent.

"Bring it down. I want to see if there is anything at very close range." The Admiral orders.

A few minutes later, tracers begin to lift from the Abyssals.

"Sir! They are shooting at the drone!"

"Invisible, still, of course." The Admiral remarks.

"Sir, the radar on the drone is picking us something."

"Yes!" The room tenses, waiting to hear to operator.

"It is picking up the shells that are being fired at it. Sir. They are combination of 12.7mm and 28mm? Who makes that?"

"Only, that?"

"Yes, sir."

The Global Hawk begins to spin and tumble. The screen goes blank.

"Shit."

"Invisible ships?" An officer says. "Or are they ghosts, like the Japanese think."

The Admiral orders, "Vector another to that area. Warn the other Global Hawk operator's. Tell everyone that their radar is not be trusted. I want the eyeballs in the planes looking. Tell them to look for wakes."

The Admiral punches a button, "Fubuki."

"Sir."

"We have been chasing our tails here and forgot to ask you." Admiral begins to speak. "Do you have any ideas about why our radar is not working?"

"I'm not sure, Admiral. Radar is not a technology that I'm familiar with. I never had it, so all I know is stories and rumors." she speaks cautiously and she pauses, gathering her thoughts. "When you asked for a volunteer to calibrate your radar, I said yes. Part of the reason was to learn about it, but when I asked questions, I never really understood the answers and I was afraid to insult people by asking for clarifications."

She finishing rapidly, "Everyone said that they knew much more than I did and I wasn't to worry about it. There would be an explanation later. Treated me like a child." She whispers. "Not a Destroyer." The Admiral hear the pain in her voice.

"Hold there, Fubuki, please." The Admiral states as he presses the mute button.

He closes his eyes and says, "I think we have made a terrible mistake, here. If anybody would know what is going on, it is the shipgirls. And they have been treated like children that know nothing and ignored." He shakes his head. He turns to his Master Chief, "Look into it, please. I have the feeling there are people I need to discuss things with."

The Master Chief salutes, "Yes, sir. There has been a couple of instances that I was bring to your attention, once things calmed down."

The admiral raises his eyebrow, and waits.

"Somebody, and I know who, I just have not proved it yet, used photoshop and placed the girls heads on some pornographic pictures. I was thinking about locking him in the same room with the girls and his photos."

Everybody smiles at that.

"The radioman on one the DD's has been flirting with Yayoi. I was waiting for his Captain to handle it, sir." A pause.

"Handle it, now." The order is iron. "I want whoever did the pictures in the brig within the hour. The radioman and his superiors, all them, including me, will write out a formal apology, to be on my desk, as soon as possible. And I want to know who has not been treating them with respect."

The Master Chief salutes and leaves the room.

He presses the button, "Fubuki, my apologizes. We should have consulted with you earlier. We just are not used to you and your abilities, yet. That changes, now."

"Thank you, sir."

"Do you have anything to add to your previous statement?"

"Well," Fubuki starts to say. "They wanted to calibrate your radar, so I tried to be as visible as possible. When I tried to be invisible that upset the man I was dealing with and he told me to stop it. He said that there would be more tests, when he had better equipment to study the effect. Sir."

"You tried to be invisible?" The Admiral asks.

"Yes, sir. We do not do it because everybody gets upset, But, I thought that was what I was asked to do."

He closes his eyes in pain. "Fubuki, if you could, please, move to an open area and we will test this 'invisibility' in the field."

"Yes, sir." she says in a small voice.

"I need to know what the happened at the calibration test, now." The order is soft spoken, but firm. "Vector a helicopter over Fubuki. We'll test airborne and ship-based sensors. Set it up. Now."

A minute later, as they watch Fubuki maneuver.

"Sir." One of the ratings says, "I think I've found something."

"Go ahead."

"It's from the original Japanese briefing paper on Kanmusu. One of footnotes mentions the "invisibility" to radar around them and that further testing is needed. Somebody in Washington struck it out with a note that was impossible, and it was ignored when we briefed. Sir."

"Sir." Another rating speaks.

After the Admiral nods, he continues, "The first man at the test was a contractor, he had about ten minutes alone with her, specializing in stealth technology. He has a past history of being difficult. Looking at his record, I would not be surprised if he hid it, so he could claim credit for discovering it and how to counter or use it."

"Fuck." Someone in the room says.

"I want names, please." His voice is calm. "We will pass the information up the chain for action. No doubt, the very high security clearance on the ShipGirls and the time pressure after Tokyo Bay and Guam, prevented a thorough checking of experts. So they sent the first person with the clearance and qualifications without checking. Washington was being cautious and not wanting us to be confused with conflicting and impossible reports."

"Fubuki is in position, sir."

"Thank you."

The big screen in the room has Fubuki standing on the ocean. The TV camera from the helicopter is on her. The wind from the hovering helicopter is twisting her hair and clothes around.

"Fubuki."

"Yes, sir!" You can hear the salute in her voice.

"Smile and wave at the camera."

She looks around. "Where, sir?"

A sigh, "The helicopter."

"Oh. Sorry, sir." She looks up and waves.

"Can you become invisible, now?"

"OF" the transmission stops.

Fubuki has vanished from the screen. You can see her wake trailing behind her.

"Fuck." from the back of the room.

"Radar?"

"Negative."

"IR?"

"Negative."

A sigh sweeps the room at that.

"Magnetics?"

"Nothing but ocean."

"Electronics?"

"Nothing. Her transmission just ended."

"Sir, I have a transmission from Nenohi."

"Put her on."

"Admiral, is something wrong with your receiver? Fubuki is trying to talk to you, but you, apparently, are not hearing her."

"She can hear us?"

"Yes, sir."

"And you can hear her and us."

"Yes, sir."

He rubs his face and sighs, "Tell her. No. Fubuki, please give us a call on that smartphone. Let's what happens then."

"She says, Ok, sir"

A pause.

"Sir. She says that is not working, like the battery is dead or something. She wants to know what you wish her do to?"

"Fubuki, please, be patient. You are not being ignored, we just are very busy right now."

"She says, 'Thank you, sir.'"

"Sonar?" He asks hopefully.

"Negative." A pause, "Wait. They can hear the wake, sir. Only that and it is very faint, too faint for a lock."

"Sir. This the Pilot of the helo. I can see her with my naked eyes. She isn't there accordingly to any of my instruments, but I see her." A pause. "I suppose she is a ghost, then."

The admiral looks around the room. "Any other ideas?"

The room is silent.

"Washington?"

The screen showing a conference room in Washington has an officer stand up and says, "Not now. We have to think about this."

"Fubuki, you can decloak, now."

Nothing happens.

Nenohi says, "Ah, Sir, she asks what does that means?"

Another sigh, "Become visible, please, Fubuki."

Fubuki appears on the screen, she is crying, "Sorry, sir." She wipes her eyes. "But, I just do not understand. Radar is nice for spotting things, but you are sounding like it is the end of the world. Why?"

"Why, Fubuki? Not only do we spot with radar, we guide our weapons with it. Without radar, every weapon we have will not function as designed."

"Your cannons, too? I mean you have so few, but?"

"They are aimed by radar, too."

"That is what I had been told, but I just did not realize that it was this important. But, don't you have an optical backup, at least for the cannon?"

"Fubuki, there is no one in the turret. It is aimed by a system that will not detect you and I am assuming the enemy."

"Oh. I know it looks small, but I assumed there was still somebody in it." A pause. "I'm sorry, sir."

"Don't be. It's not your fault. It is not, really, anybodies fault. Things are happening faster than we can adjust for them."

"Sir?"

"Yes."

"I've got a report from a person using binoculars about what he saw during the test."

"Tell me."

"Here, let me put him on."

"Sir, PO Smith, here."

"Tell me what you saw."

"Sir. Everything was fine, then she vanished from the brand new high tech binoculars, I was using. But, sir, I could still see her with my naked eyes. And the guy next to me, using a very old set could see her just fine. I could see her just fine when we traded, sir." He swallows. "On a wild thought, I took the batteries out of my binoculars, and tried again. It worked, somewhat, she was blurry, but she was visible. Sir."

"Thank you for that report, sailor. PO Smith, I want you here, and bring both sets of binoculars and the other sailor you mentioned."

A few minutes later.

The Admiral is turning over the binoculars, when the sailor they belong to says. "They were my grandfathers, sir. He gave them to me when I joined. I use them for bird watching."

"Sir," PO Smith says, "I've been hearing rumors and, well, the only thing I did was turn off all the electronics in my set. Begging your pardon, but I think she was messing up the computer chip itself."

Silence.

Admiral Scott looks at the old binoculars. They are US Naval 7X50 Binoculars from WWII.

"We are sooo, Fucked." Sounds from the back of the room.

End Chapter 1

Author's note: For this story, Kanmusu and Abyssal are basically two sides of the same coin, magically speaking. The Alpha to the others Omega. So, they share basic abilities, how they use them is different, of course.

Note: I've read some action novels and done some very limited research on modern naval tactics, only. So, my titles and tactics will be wrong. If you, the reader, can give me some advice I'll use it. But, all I'm hoping for is readability and drama, I will sacrifice detail for that.

Thank you for reading

Jeff


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 Explanations

 **Less than 100 miles from Guam.**

Admiral Scott spends a minute in thought while he moves the binoculars from hand to hand. The room respects his silence and does not interrupt, until.

"Sir! A new report from Global Hawk 7."

"What is it?"

"It has found more wakes, at least a dozen, 400 miles to our west. Sir."

He clutches the binoculars. "Mind if I borrow these sailor?"

"Of course, sir."

"I need a chopper to the _Mustin,_ then have them lower a launch. I need to have a face to face with the Shipgirls." He orders.

"Sir." His Chief of Staff says in a quiet tone, "It is my responsibility to remind you that we are at General Quarters and there are enemy planes in sight"

The Admiral raises his hand in a stop sign. "Let's take that as said. Chief. I want the chopper, now. Fubuki, come along side the _Mustin_. I need to talk to all of you."

"Yes, sir!"

"Under protest, sir." The chief of staff says.

"Noted, and perfectly understandable. But do it, now."

People start to scramble.

As the Admiral leaves the room he stops and says, "Concentrate on the south and the east, if my guess is correct, they'll be more in both locations."

"They are trying to surround us?" the rating asks.

He nods as he leaves.

In the launch, alongside the _Mustin_ as she builds up speed after slowing down to release the launch.

The Admiral, his surface warfare officer and the electronic warfare officer plus the Admiral's coxswain are in the launch. Fubuki and the rest of the shipgirls come speeding around the _Mustin_ and ride alongside to the launch.

Due to the wind rushing past them and the noise of the hull bouncing along the waves, everybody speaks in an elevated volume.

"Sir!" Fubuki salutes. The others follow suit.

Admiral Scott salutes, a real formal salute, back. "Girls. No. Destroyers."

They smile.

"I wanted to make a personal apology for what has happened and what will happen. Fubuki, I know you wanted a formal briefing before we started, but I was unavailable."

"Yes, sir."

"The truth is that I did not know how to react to you." He nods to included all the Shipgirls. "I am sorry, that is unforgivable."

"Sir." Kisaragi says, "We know we are causing problems and we understand. It takes time to adjust." She giggles and says in lighthearted tone, "We ought to know, since we have to adjust to the now" and then she sobers. "You, at least, did not tell us to our face that we were little girls, not warships."

"Tell me who that was and I see that he is punished." He says harshly.

She shakes her head, "Do worry, Admiral, it was a Japanese officer that said it."

Fubuki waves her hand at the other officers in the launch. "What else, Admiral?"

He holds up the WWII binoculars, "Can you explain, why this is the first piece of tech that works against you when you are invisible?"

"May I?" Fubuki reaches from the set and he tosses them to her. After a couple of seconds she passes them to the other girls and pulls out the smartphone. After a fumble, she turns it on. "One half charge." She tosses it to the Admiral.

"I thought that you would ask about that, sir." Fubuki begins to speak, slowly, earnestly and choosing her words carefully, "I think I can answer your question, but it will take awhile."

"Take you time, Fubuki." He smiles, "Just remember, sooner or later the scout planes circling us will attack."

Fubuki smiles, "It won't take that long, sir." She takes a deep breath. "How Kongo-sempai explained our creation is good place to start."

"Excuse me," The Electronic Warfare (EW) Officer interrupts, "but Kongo explained it? And this the first we are hearing about it?"

Fubuki shrugs, "I do not know about that, sir."

The officer turns around and asks the staff on the Reagan to look into it.

Fubuki continues, "Kongo-sempai said: When Masamune made a sword he poured his skill and his soul into the blade, that is why his swords are alive. When the craftsmen and dockworkers made us, they did they gave us a part of their soul. Our crew did, as well. The people of Japan placed their hopes and dreams in us. All that, combined, is what makes us. We are alive due to them."

"I would have liked that explanation before," The Admiral states.

"Sir." The officer says, "They found out why. If you want it, privately?"

"No. Broadcast it via radio. I'll listen to it from Fubuki's speakers."

"Sir. It was in the original brief, but Washington struck it as a fairy tale. Sir."

"We are living a fairy tale, now." The Admiral states. "Magic is real. But, Washington has not learned that yet. Go over that original briefing paper and give me a full report, ASAP." He takes a deep breath, "Continue, Fubuki. Tell me the connection."

Fubuki motions for the binoculars and grabs them as they are tossed to her. "This has been cared for and loved for decades, sir. I can feel it. It has…. Life." She shakes her head. "No. That is the wrong term. I don't think that English or Japanese can describe what I'm feeling. There is the potential for life, might be better."

She points to the smartphone. "That is lifeless." Nenohi nods vigorously and the other girls do it as well. "Nobody has cared for it. When I asked how it was made I was told that a lot of" she is speaking slowly and carefully here, "automation and robots were involved. It" She pauses as she fumbles for an answer.

"It was made untouched by man. Machines making machines." The Admiral states, as he interrupts.

Fubuki and the girls nods. "That is it. Sir! You said it better than I could. No craftsman or previous user poured their soul in it. To me that is unnatural. When I turn 'invisible', to me the better way to say it is, I refuse to allow the unnatural to affect me."

"I know that I'll need it to adjust to the present." She points to the phone. "I hope that if I treat it right, in about six months or a year I'll have given it enough of my soul, that it becomes alive and finally stops being an irritation in my pocket."

"Thanks, Fubuki!" Nenohi says, "You described why I hate mine! Please! Can I use it!"

Fubuki shrugs, "Sure."

Arare interrupts, "Kongo does not know everything, Fubuki. I prefer the other explanation, myself."

She points to the Admiral. "You are alive." She points to herself. "I am alive." She points to the antenna's on the Mustin. "They are not. I am real and being alive you can see me. They only see me when I want them to see me."

"That's basically the same thing, Arare."

Arare shakes her head. "Nope. By your reasoning, that machine can choose. By mine, they can not choose, I do.

"Semantics." Fubuki shrugs. A pause, "Admiral?"

"Right now, It does not matter." He sighs. He tosses it back to her, "I hate to tell you this, but, new models come out every six to twelve months, and it is standard to upgrade to the new model."

Fubuki holds the phone. "Then. Then, I will have to think about that."

The electronics officer swears under his breath.

"You have a comment." The Admiral says, "Share it."

"The heart of the electronics is the programming. Every time we update and change it." He sighs. "My people care for the machines, I know."

"But they change too quickly to gain that ''life' Fubuki mentioned." The Surface Warfare (SW) finishes.

They look at Fubuki. She shrugs, "Maybe. I don't know. This is new to me, too."

Arare sniffs.

"The Ships?" The Admiral asks.

"They are fine." Fubuki shifts, rides the wake and pats the Mustin's hull. "She is not going to let you down, Admiral. None of them are. If I understand everything, the Abyssals will have screwed their weapons, but their are not going to give up. The Abyss" She sighs, "might kill them, but the Abyssals will know they were in a fight."

"How much do you understand what is happening?" The Admiral asks.

"This is a trap." Fubuki replies. "For the _Ronald Reagan_. They tried a surprise attack at her home. They did not expect us, then. This time she's on their ocean and they expect to sink her."

She spins around, has a little stumble as she leaves the wake, but recovers as she returns to the launch. "But, we are here. _Ronald Reagan_ sinks only if they sink me first." She says in a totally serious tone. "I swear."

The other Shipgirls echo her.

She smiles, quickly, then her expression becomes serious. "I can't swear that'll she get home without damage, and how many of her escorts will not go home. I don't where they are, but they are here and waiting."

The Admiral asks, "I'm curious. Your opinion of their tactics?"

Fubuki glances at the other girls, they shrug. "Well, sooner or later, the dive bomber scouts will attack. I do not why they haven't." Another glance at the girls.

"Probably waiting for reinforcements," Yayoi says, "One plane against us will die, attacking in a small group, at least, will have a chance at a hit."

Fubuki nods, "Thanks, Yayoi. It's too late in the day for the carrier's main strike." Fubuki looks the Admiral in the face. "Besides, the reason for this is to kill us. She'll want a full day to attack and make sure of the kill. They want nobody to get back to Japan."

The Admiral nods, "They are attacking the US Navy's reputation. Sinking the Reagan is merely a means to destroy that. A successful attack, now, might, very unlikely, but might be enough to get me to retreat, or more likely cause Washington to order it and I'll have a full night to escape. But, that's impossible, now. I can not run from a fight."

Everybody nods. Too many people have paid with their lives to develop that reputation, and it must be fought for. Even if this task force dies, if they die fighting, that will preserve that reputation. They all understand that instinctively.

Admiral Scott gives a bark of laughter, "Even if Washington orders a retreat, I'll probably have to refuse the order, now."

The electronics and surface warfare officers cringe at that statement. Fubuki and her girls smile and nod in full agreement.

"She'll start to attack us in force at dawn. The destroyers around us will use the night to approach and attack in coordination." Fubuki says.

Mutsuki says, "That type of timing is hard to do right. So, we will probably only face part of their forces, at first. But more will come in throughout the morning. Sir"

The Admiral nods, "We understand each other. Suggestions?"

Fubuki looks at the Surface Warfare officer, "We need to be the _Ronald Reagan's_ close escort, sir. They'll go after her and we have the best chance that way."

He starts to speak, but the Admiral places his hand on his arm, stopping him.

Fubuki swallows, "And, I hate to say this, but I must, we will be using your ships to absorb the first attack and then we will counter-attack their battle line while they are busy with you, some of your ships will have to die, in order for everybody else to survive."

"Sir! I must protest! My ships are finest! They are capable of defending the Reagan! That plan, if you can call it that, will lead to unnecessary deaths!"

The Admiral nods, "Jack, I understand your position. Do you have a real reason to object to it or was that reflex?"

"Sir" He glances at the shipgirls and then looks at the Admiral. "We have only know these unknown beings for a matter of days, I can not."

"Stop!" The Admiral roars. "My apologies, for that statement."

"Thank you. But, it is unnecessary. If I was in his position I'd have made the same objection. It is a hard thing to go into battle alongside somebody you do not know." Fubuki says softly. "There are times when we have wondered if the scene from 'Frankenstein' would happen and people would chase us out to sea."

"I can see that." The Surface warfare officer states.

Fubuki looks at him and bows, "Sir, I am open to suggestions. But, the unfamiliarity with each other is already causing problems with us being mixed together. I would not like to see what would happen in battle." She shudders.

"Yes. Your ships are not signaling position changes, correctly." Yayoi says. The others nod and add their comments about positioning.

"You see." Fubuki shrugs. "There are not enough us to cover the area that the outer escorts must cover. We could take one side and you the other, but I won't insult you by saying, even in inference, that you can not do your job."

"You could stay in a separate group and let us do what we have trained for." The Surface Warfare officer growls.

Fubuki nods, "If that is the Admirals wishes, of course. I'm afraid that our timing will be off during the battle."

He nods, "Yes. I can tell that I'm going to wait until the last moment before I start asking for help."

Fubuki smiles, "My concern, as well, and if our positions were reversed, Sir, I can tell you that I **will** wait until it was too late."

The Surface Warfare officer and Fubuki smile and nod at each other. They look at the Admiral.

He sighs, "We need to adjust our missiles to unguided, straight line flight paths and see if we can find a way to get the guns working. This instant, all I can think of is using their high rate of firing like a machine gun. That will work, but it will burn through their magazine."

The Surface Warfare officer nods, "I've already ordered that, sir. They should have some simulations ready by the time we get back on the Reagan, sir."

"We'll see what they say. We should have the night to adjust things. Right now, Fubuki, I'm going to be positive and assume that we can handle it. So plan that you will be separated from the Reagan and will have to join mid-battle." He turns to the officer, "And Jack, I will decide when to bring them in. You two will have to decide which you prefer, her taking over the close escort position or just a side, or a portion of a side."

Fubuki and the Surface Warfare officer nod.

"Now," The Admiral turns to the Electronic Warfare officer, "The reason, I brought you. Fubuki do you know why you can hear us but we can not hear you?"

They listen closely to the answer.

"I do not know, sir." She shrugs. "Maybe it is because I want to hear you?"

They sigh in disappointment.

"I do have a question, Fubuki." The EW officer asks, "Can you hear them?"

All the shipgirls pale and nod.

"Horrible signals, sir. Ugly. And before you ask they are coded and unreadable. They are not even using Morse or any known variation of it."

"Can you locate them?"

"I am sorry, none of us have DF loops. Kongo-sempai and Akagi-sempai do, but they are traveling under radio silence. By the strength of signal? Most are still hundreds of kilometers away, maybe? The scout planes are signaling." Fubuki looks around. "And, I think we have a couple subs chasing us, and they signaling to subs in our path."

Nenohi and Arare nod vigorously, "I hate subs. They killed me." They both say and look at each and share a shy smile.

The SW officer says under his breath, "Shit." He clears his throat, "Still WWII era subs and torpedoes. We should be able to maneuver around them." After a pause, "We may not hear them, but if they go active, we should trace that."

Fubuki shrugs, "I'd say that you were right, but everything I've heard and read says the we were terrible at ASW during the war."

The Admiral's eyes narrow, "You have spent time, probably a great deal of your free time since you appeared, studying the later parts of WWII?"

They all nod.

"Now, that we are going to enter into combat allied with you, I wish that I spent more time than a cursory and confusing skim of a copy of last years Jane's." Fubuki says. "But."

"But." The Admiral agrees.

Fubuki straightens and clears her throat, "Sir."

She waits for the Admiral to nod and say, "Go ahead."

"I, Destroyer Fubuki and the Destroyers with me are under a strong order to evacuate Japanese Citizens from the Marianas Islands. While I am under orders, and firmly desire to obey them, to conform to your movements, battle plans, and orders during battle, these orders can not be ignored. Everything that I've heard and seen, today, has told me that the safest place for them is under the protection of our guns."

She stares him in the eyes. "I'm not leaving without them. Even we end up each towing a boat for only a dozen civilians in it, we will."

Admiral nods. "Thank you, Special Type Destroyer Fubuki. That is expected. I have no intention of leaving them, myself. The Abyssals are giving me a night to load the civilians and get them started on their way to Japan before the battle begins. In deference to your orders, JMSDF _Kurama_ will escort them."

"Thank you, sir."

"Guys!" Mutsuki yells! "We are out of time! Dive Bombers!" She points. The girls, turn and start aiming their guns.

"Kisaragi!" Fubuki orders. "Grab the launch and get it out of the way! Now!"

Kisaragi zips behind the launch grabs the stern and pushes it to speed. The AA weapons on her rigging begin to point in the sky.

Fubuki's and the girls cannons fire.

"It begins." The Admiral states as scrambles for a seat belt

End chapter 2

Author's note: Do not take any explanation given in the dialogue as truth. Fubuki and the girls is answering to the best of her ability and knowledge, but that knowledge is limited. She could not explain everything and not every possible question was asked.

Thank you for reading

jeff


	3. Chapter 3

Kantai collection fanfic

 **The Battle of the Mariana Islands**

Start chapter 3 Initial Encounters

Author's note: The Anime shows a forcefield around Princess Class Abyssals, and in a frame by frame close-up view, a forcefield around Kongo's hand when she saved Fubuki.

 **30 minutes later. On the** ** _Ronald Reagan_** **. Approx 70 miles from Guam.**

The Admiral is stepping off a helicopter, his clothes are dripping water. The Captain of the Reagan is there to greet him. The Electronics and Surface Warfare officer follow him, also dripping wet.

"Sorry, sir. I will not slow down." The Captain says.

"I approve, Jim." Admiral Scott replies. "I had to look the Kanmusu in the eyes, though." He grins, "Watching the action from the back of a launch, while exciting, was dangerous."

"I saw, sir. It looked that way. She was twisting herself and it around in ways that I believed were impossible."

"You, no. Everybody needs to retire that word beginning, now. My opinion, now, is that calling something impossible is taken as a challenge for them to break it."

The Captain laughs, "It does seem that way. Will you need new clothes?"

He shakes his head, "No. I'm going to CIC and I want to know what just happened."

"So, do I."

 **In the room.**

The Admiral is drying off his hair, and says, "How many planes just hit us? I was only anticipating ten to twelve, and I counted twenty five. But in the twisting and splashing, I am probably wrong."

The Chief of Staff scratches his head, "I'd like to know that myself. Without radar we are relying on eyewitness's. I've gotten reports from ten to forty enemy planes were in the air. They hid in the clouds and attacked in three groups. My current estimate is twenty, maybe 22."

"Results?"

"Three near misses on the Ronald Reagan and one DD. Three shipgirls reported near misses. Two more were clean misses. We are still not sure what happened to the other bombs. We lost three F-18's. One, first guess, he got target fixation and flew into the ocean. He ejected in time. He was rescued. The second was hit by gunfire. The pilot and RO ejected, but was strafed under the parachute. A F-18 destroyed that enemy as it tried to speed away."

They angrily growl at that.

"The third, it looks like a mid-air with an Abyssal Dive Bomber. He is dead. Three other F-18's were hit and took damage, but landed safely." He clears his throat. "I think the Air Group Commander needs to speak."

That officer stands. "All of my pilots reported feeling fear while dog fighting the Abyssals. I think the F-18 that crashed into the ocean, was due to that. First report from the rescue chopper, has him crying, shaking and repeating over and over again. 'Stay away.'" He clears his throat. "Most of my pilots reported mistakes in the air, due to this fear. Also, these were dive bombers, so I wonder about her fighters. Future encounters, sir, are problematic."

The assistant surface warfare clears his throat, "Sir, when the dive bombers pulled out their dives several strafed DD's. Damage is minor. Only a couple deaths from newly positioned M-2 machine guns on deck. But, they also reported that fear reaction as the enemy passed overhead."

"I see. That matches with eyewitness accounts from Tokyo Bay, so we must assume they have some kind of aura around them that induces fear." The Admiral states.

"Sir." An officer from Washington, watching the room, interrupts. "That is impossible."

Admiral Scott looks at the screen, "Sir, The impossible is real. I will react to the new reality, Admiral Stone." He looks at his Chief of Staff. "Next."

"Ah. Before we go on, I do have an additional point," the Surface Warfare officers says, as hands his towel to a rating. After the Admiral's nod, he continues. "When I was at the Academy and we covered WWII, I was always noticed the difference between the initial reports and the post-war analysis. Those were well trained professional observers but, they still made errors. While training has improved, none of us have experienced or trained for this type of attack, before. So, I wonder about the accuracy."

The Chief of Staff frowns, "I have already taken that into account and dismissed the upper estimates. I am confident in the 20 to 22 number."

"He does have a point though, gentlemen. Now that I have seen and experienced a WWII style attack, I can believe that well trained observers can make mistakes. Cut the planes in half. Make it 10 or 11 enemy aircraft." The Admiral states.

"Sir. That makes all of our estimates and planning worse." The Chief of Staff says.

"I'd rather plan for the worse and surprised at how easy the victory, instead of planning an easy victory and suffering a defeat." A pause. Then the Admiral of the 7th Fleet orders. "Understood."

The room echoes with, "Aye, aye, sir!"

"Next."

The Chief of Staff looks at his tablet and scrolls to the page.

"It looks like we got 5 to 7 more enemy planes in addition to the mid-air." He nods the Surface Warfare officer, "3 or 4, now We tried to retrieve pieces, no luck. The pilot says they melted like the Wicked Witch."

The Admiral chuckles at that. The room follows his example.

The Chief of Staff smiles, wickedly, "We have one pilot, LT. Metcalf, who is following a group of four dive bombers. He says that he can see leaking fuel from one of them."

"Get him some help! Do not lose them or shoot them down!" The Admiral says excited.

"Those orders have already been issued. Two more F-18's are on they way. We are also sending several drones on converging paths. He is out of ammo, so he can not shot them down."

"Good. Follow them back to the carrier. Once we have a location for her." The Admiral's voice trails off. He and everybody in the room smiles.

"Sir. The pilot reports that they are not, repeat, not trying to fly into the clouds and escape his view. He feels like he is being guided. Sir" A rating states.

Admiral Scott frowns. "It seems we are being invited in. Said the spider to the fly. Still. Knowing that there is a trap can be useful. When we break one leg of the attack, we should be in a good position to attack." A pause. "Anything else?"

The Chief of staff grimaces, "Due to the use of unguided weapons and each DD's Captain placing manned M2's on deck, we do have a few casualties due to blue on blue, sir."

Admiral grimaces, "Not welcome news, but also not unexpected. Deaths?"

"Yes. two. One on the _Curtis Wilbur_ and one the _McCain_. Plus several injured by ricochets."

"Be gentle on everybody involved. It was the first time we tried this, mistakes can be forgiven. But." His voice hardens. "But we have tonight to train and improve. There had better not be any tomorrow."

"Aye, Aye, sir!" The room replies.

The SW officer clears his throat, "We need to include the shipgirls in that."

"See to it." He smiles. "I'm interested in seeing their reaction to laser simulators."

He chuckles. "Yes, sir."

The assistant SW officer clears his throat, again, "Sir, with the uncontrolled firing of our cannons, we used a lot more shells than normal. The action lasted under five minutes and we used between 5% to 10% of our shells. We are going to have to engage some fire discipline, even if the system's inability to see them means we are guessing at their location."

The Admiral nods. "That is what I thought."

"Anything else?"

"Sir, the drones have not found any additional enemy to our south and east, like you thought." A rating says.

The Admiral shakes his head, "They are already in position and are sitting motionless, in all likelihood. For planning purposes assume 12 whales and 2 of those cyborg things at each location."

"Sir?" The SW officer.

"It is better to overestimate your opponent, than to underestimate him."

"Aye, aye, Sir."

He sighs. He looks around the room, "I do not now if you saw what I did, however. I saw Kisaragi raked by a 12.7mm machine gun."

The SW and the EW officers set their jaws and nod. The others look around, and the Communication officer asks, "Is she alright?"

"She is fine." The Admiral replies, "A blue forcefield appeared and deflected, I think, the rounds."

"Sir. I think that was caught on film. Give me a second and I'll put on the screen" A rating says.

 **A minute later**

The video shows Kisaragi, around 200 meters from a DD, the launch is about 5 meters from her, is hit by 3 rounds from a hand aimed 12.7mm machine gun that apparently was aiming at an Abyssal dive bomber that is invisible to the electronics. A blue forcefield stops each round, Kisaragi does not appear to notice. A round from above does hit her in her right shoulder, causing her to grimace from pain, but it had no other visible effect. She fires at the invisible plane.

The dive bomber explodes, you can see the parts as they burn and fall, in the distance from the shell from her gun. Kisaragi starts to dance. The clip ends.

"Sir. That basically matches eyewitness accounts from Tokyo Bay. Plus it matches unexplained blue bubbles seen during that action."

Another clip begins.

It shows part of Tokyo Bay. The water is filled with wakes and shell splashes, but no Abyssals are visible. Occasionally, there is a flash of blue and then an explosion and a whale-thing becomes visible as it thrashes in pain. There is also, occasionally, a blue sphere floating on the water. The clip ends.

The Admiral nods. "I remember that clip." He sighs. "Now we know. Send it to our people for analysis, asap." He orders. "See if they can determine how strong that forcefield is."

He punches a button, "Kisaragi?"

"Yes, Admiral?"

"How badly were you hurt by that Dive Bomber?"

"Oh, that? I was surprised more than hurt, sir. It was only a 12.7mm round, AP, I think. It'll bruise, but my DC fairies are working on it. I won't need a dock. Thank you for your concern!"

A moment of silence.

"I'm not going to go off on a tangent about 'DC fairies' and a 'dock'." The Admiral says under his breath. He asks her, "What about when you were hit by the rounds from us?"

"Oh? That's what that was. I saw the blue flashes, but I did not feel anything, sir."

"Do you know anything about those 'blue flashes'?"

"Just what has been passed around by us, Kanmusu, sir. Let's see if I can remember, now."

Fubuki breaks in, "I know what Kongo-sempai said, Kisaragi."

Kisaragi, in a harder tone than normal, replies, "Kongo-sempai does not know everything, Fubuki. Stop trying to suck up to her."

A pause. "I am sorry, Kisaragi, but I have to start somewhere."

Kisaragi replies in a soft tone, "I am sorry, too, Fubuki. It's just, you know."

"Yes. We are lost on a sea of time." Fubuki says softly. "And I'm trying to find a place to anchor."

"Yeah."

Silence.

The Admiral clears his throat, "Girls? An answer?"

"You say it."

"No, You say it."

"No, I'll mess it up."

"No, you'll be fine."

"Girls!" Sternly spoken by the Admiral. "Answer, please."

"Sorry, sir." "Sorry, sir."

Fubuki sighs, "Kongo-sempai says the we are magical in origin, so it takes either magic or great power to hurt us, sir. Your weapons are not magic, so it takes a level of power before it hurts us. From past encounters, Rifle caliber to 25mm rounds fired at us cause that blue field to appear and it stops them. The effect is automatic and reflexive, we have no control over it."

A pause for breath. "127mm or better shells can hit us and can cause a lot of damage. In our after action report of Tokyo Bay, Inazuma was hit by a 127mm shell and Sazanami was hit by a 155mm shell fired from Yokosuka, but they were already hit by Abyssal shells and these just made their situations worse. Both had to retire from the battle after the hits, sir."

She takes a breath. "I think the limit is around 57mm to 76mm before I'd get hurt, sir." She tries a joke. "But, please do not take that as in invitation to fire at me."

Silence. It fell flat.

"Anything further, Fubuki?"

"Yes, sir. Kongo-sempai believes that the blue field does not work the same vs Abyssal rounds, since they are magically approximately the same as us. Which is a pity, since that would help. But, of course, that means that our weapons will work against them. She also knows that the larger the vessel the stronger the field, sir." A pause.

"During Tokyo Bay, I was almost killed by the Abyssal flagship, a Ru-class BB. Kongo-sempai punched a 406mm shell away from me. She told me later, her hand tingled. Sir. That was all an Abyssal round did to her, sir. I have no idea what your weapons would do to her. But, she is a Battleship, I'm only a Destroyer."

"Basically the same as the black whale things."

"Yes, sir." Fubuki says quietly.

"So, our cannons will work against them." He rubs his chin. "Abyssal planes are smaller, so our 12.7mm can hurt them."

"Yes, sir."

"The carrier?"

"Unknown."

"Her escorts?"

"At Tokyo Bay, an Abyssal light cruiser was hit and damaged by a shell from Yokosuka. There were no Heavy Cruisers at Tokyo Bay, so I do not know about them. Multiple shells did not penetrate the Abyssal BB's field, sir. Only Kongo-sempai, Akagi-sempai's dive bombers and some torpedoes from us destroyers, we are still arguing about who hit her, hurt her." She gulps. "We only drove her away. She is still out here."

"Do you know if that after action report has been filed?"

"I gave mine to Kongo-sempai the next day, sir. I believe that all the girls did, and we spent the time between then and when we sailed going over the report. My understanding is that she turned in the Kanmusu's report before she sailed, yesterday. I do not know when, exactly, though."

"Check that, please." The Admiral orders his Chief of Staff. "I'd like to read that report."

The Chief of Staff says, "Yes, sir. Sir, I've got another report that you should see."

"What?"

"It started during your conversation, but I held it. Sir. A TV station chopper lifted off from Guam, to broadcast our approach, but soon after takeoff, an enemy plane began herding it out to sea. They are still transmitting."

"Let's see it."

The screen changes to the feed from the Guam TV station.

The news helicopter is flying over ocean at about one thousand feet. The reporter is saying. "You can not see it, but there is a horrible flying thing off our left side. It has fired at us every time we try to turn or change altitude. Every time it closes within about 30 meters we feel bone-chilling horror. We have no idea where we are headed."

"They are headed south, southwest of Guam, sir. They are about 50 kilometers from Guam, now."

A rating says, "Sir. I've plotted the dive bombers path, and they are headed in the same destination."

"A meeting?"

The Admiral shakes his head, "Something else, I think. Put a drone on them, keep me updated."

"Sir. I've got that after action report from the Battleship Kongo. It is still in the original Japanese, however."

"I can read it. Put on my tablet."

"Yes. sir. There was a delay, sir. Somebody had to rewrite the report. They could not upload the original. Something about Kongo's magic?"

"The sounds similar to the problems with photos?" The Admiral remarks. "See if you can get the details from Tokyo."

"Yes, sir."

"Sir, I could get Fubuki's report?" A rating suggests. "Perhaps she can transmit it, or she has a physical copy?"

"Good idea. See to it."

Fubuki can produce a copy of her after action report, so can the other girls. A chopper will pick them up and deliver them to the Reagan.

The Admiral and his staff start going over the new weapons simulations, while the ratings start going over Kongo's report, breaking in every so often to update the situation.

When the helicopter with the Kanmusu's reports lands on the Reagan, the pilot tells the rating sent to get the reports. "Fubuki said that she added a separate note for the Admiral's eyes only. Said it was important!"

"Ok! Got it!"

After Admiral Scott opens the note, he reads:

Sir,

I am under orders to reveal our abilities only under a direct question. This order was given to us soon after we arrived, and given our recent orders, I'm sure it will be changed, but for now it still applies. However, a situation has arisen. My personal desire to see the civilians to safety overrides, I find, my obedience to orders, sir.

Kanmusu are, first and foremost, ships. Operating in shallow water is not normal. Walking on land is unnatural. I feel, we all feel, weaker under those conditions. It is not a real weakness, more something unfamiliar than anything else. We can adapt to walking like humans can adapt to swimming.

However, it does cause our magic to weaken. The 'invisibility' effect can not be used on land, and it weakens in shallow water. From reports that we have gotten, when the Abyssal Destroyers wade on land, they are vulnerable to hand held rifle caliber rounds. It is my opinion, that the 'force field' effect also vanishes.

Please, sir, direct the evacuation ships to travel from island to island, via the Mariana, Bonin, Izu Shichito islands. The way is longer, but I believe, safer, Admiral.

Thank you  
Destroyer Fubuki, Kanmusu

Admiral Scott snorts. He folds the note and places it in his pocket.

Then, after a few minutes and at a natural break point in the ongoing discussion around him, he asks "Chief?'

"Yes, sir."

"Make a note. Since the Abyssals are ocean dwelling beings, it is my opinion, that they will dislike traveling in shallow water. Direct the evacuation ships to reach Japan via the various islands north of Guam/Saipan."

"Yes, sir. It will be easy to change their route, sir. Nice logical thinking, sir. I haven't heard it before, sir."

"Yes. It just appeared in my head."

 **Later**

"Sir!"

"Yes."

"An F-18 flying near Saipan has spotted one of those cyborg things with all those guns. He is engaging."

"Give us a feed!"

"I'm going to close and fire all my rockets and fire my gun, hopefully something hit. Like Star Wars." The pilot says as he approaches. There nothing on the view from the gun camera

"I am not afraid." The pilot grits his teeth.

The screen goes white from the rocket exhausts.

The F-18 pulls up. "Nothing. Luke makes look so easy. Shit."

"Report!"

"I fired everything. The missiles missed. Without computer assist, I just did not fire them at the correct instant. I'll have to ripple fire the missiles, next time. That should allow some hits. My 20mm rounds caused that blue forcefield effect, sir. I think it flinched, sir. So, maybe, if we had a gunship and they could focus and maintain contact, they could hurt it. But, I'm only hitting it with one or two rounds and that is not enough."

"Understand. Thanks for the attempt. Return to the Reagan for rearming."

"No." The Admiral interrupts. "Stay within sight. Send more planes to attack it."

"Aye, aye. Sir."

The Admiral turns to the Air Group Commander. "Let's use this as a training exercise. Attack it one F-18 at a time. Switch up attack styles and weapons. Find something or a combination of somethings that will kill it. We will need more training to be able to hit a man-sized target, moving at speed, and without computers to hit it with unguided missiles. If they were the size of WWII destroyers or cruisers we could probably get, at least, one hit, but against human sized targets?" He shakes his head.

"Aye, Aye, sir!"

 **Later**

"Sir. The news chopper." A rating remarks as she switches the screen to that feed.

"That feeling of horror is increasing." TV Reporters voice is shaky. her voice hoarse. "Just horrible. Like I am in a horror movie, and I am about to meet the killer."

"Jane! Off in the distance! Something is on the water!" The pilot screams.

The cameraman focuses his camera.

"I am getting something from the Global Hawk overhead, sir!" A rating yells triumphantly.

"Our sensors are working, sir! She decloaked!" Another yells.

"Set up up the missiles, if she is giving us a free shot, I'll take it." The Admiral says, smiling. "Send in the F-18's that are following the Dive Bombers. We have to hit her, now."

"Sir! The Chopper!"

On the screen.

The cameraman throws his camera down, and jumps off the helicopter screaming, "I've got to run away!"

The voice of the TV reporter as she whimpers, "Leave me alone. Stop crushing my mind."

The pilot violently changes direction and a couple of seconds later, the chopper explodes due to hits from the accompanying abyssal fighter.

The operator of Global Hawk tightens the focus.

An tentacle headed shape is riding on the water.

"Sir. A radio carrier wave. Switching!"

A female voice is heard.

 ** _"Wo."_**

 **End chapter**

Abyssal horror effect: In cannon, there is, to my knowledge, no interaction between Abyssals and humans. There is, apparently, no human presence on the ocean, as well. The Abyssal horror field is simply one reason, of many, for it. If you are afraid to go into the water...

Against prepared and well trained humans in normal combat ranges for WWII combat, it has a limited unnerving effect. Against unprepared and untrained humans, the effect is worse.

Force Field effect: Kanmusu vs Abyssal combat: the field is only 1/10 the power against non-magical attacks. Or, to put it another way, to hurt Kongo, modern attacks must be at least 10X the power of a WWII 16in shell.

Author's note: I am basing eyewitness reports in a similar manner to WWII reports. Actual number of Abyssal Dive Bombers in the attack was 10. Total number of kills by US/Kanmusu force was 3. 1 by mid-air. 1 by Kisaragi 5" cannon. 1 by F-18 20mm. 1 more was a write-off on arrival by 20mm F-18 gun. 3 more were slightly damaged. 3 had no damage.

Thank you for reading  
Jeff


	4. Chapter 4

**The Battle of the Mariana Islands**

The operator of Global Hawk tightens the focus.

An tentacle headed shape is riding on the water.

"Sir. A radio carrier wave. Switching!"

" ** _Wo."_** Comes over the radio.

 **Begin chapter** **_Wo_**

Laughter begins. **_"HAHAHAHAHA!"_**

Everybody in the room feels horror. Everyone listening to the radio on Guam, and the world, via satellites and ham operators that were listening in, does as well.

The Washington conference room, the Joint Chief's that were watching and listening and the White House, watching as well, can also feel it. Years later anybody listening to the recordings can still feel an echo of horror from the it.

Horror filmmakers, finally, can hear the laugh that they have attempted to create over the decades.

Mankind knows now, the Abyssal are not something from Earth.

There is something out there and it hungers.

 ** _Earth is on the menu._**

After ten seconds it stops.

 ** _"Wo."_**

"Sir!" A hoarse voiced and shaky rating says. "The F-18's are on afterburner, they will be there in at anytime. One still has a Maverick on her. The other has two AMRAAM's. Both have rounds for their gun, sir."

"Kill her!"

The Global Hawk sees **_Wo_** turns in the direction of the F-18's.

They can see the Maverick enter its field of vision acting normally, but it shatters against the force field.

Both F-18's close to engage with guns.

But.

The pilot of one screams, "I've got to get away!" He points the Hornet up, at a high angle, turns on the afterburner, releasing every flare and countermeasure he can, and repeats "I'm ain't afraid." When he is several miles away and 35,000 feet high, only then does he regain control of himself and the plane.

The other closes with **_Wo_** , screaming "Die! Mother-Fucker!", until its engine fails when he is closest to **_Wo_**. The engines restart as soon as he passes over her. The momentary flameout distracts him long enough for **_Wo_** 's CAP to shoot him down. There were no ejections.

The double sonic booms and shockwaves from the F-18's affected her the most. They cause her to rock on the waves.

 ** _Wo_** laughs, again.

"Harpoons?"

"Yes. Every ship." The Admiral orders.

"Sir?"

"'There is no such thing as overkill.'" Admiral Scott quotes. "I want her blown back to the hell she sailed from. Have the Global Hawk close, I want this on close-up. Record every detail."

"Yes, Sir." A second later. "On their way."

Everyone in the CIC glances at the Admiral and gains courage from his steady presence. Although, the officers nearest him can see small beads of sweat on his forehead and the fact that his hands are tightly balled into fists as he controls himself.

The Kanmusu and the sailors of the 7th Fleet get to see a sight rarely seen before, as the full force of a US Carrier Battle Group ripple fire a live war shot at the same target. 2 Cruisers, 7 Destroyers, and in the distance 3 more missiles emerge from the water from the subs, to attack **_Wo_**.

 ** _Wo_** waits.

A miniature Abyssal plane leaves the mouth in the tentacled monster, once it flies a few feet from her, it expands to full size.

"So that is the carrier." The Admiral breathes.

"Sir. We've finally killed that cyborg thing." The Air Group Commander whispers.

"Anything that will affect the harpoons?"

"They are tracking normally. So. No. But. We will see. There is a shocking stat, sir. One that we have to see what will happen against **_Wo_** , before we can do anything about it."

"Later, then."

The Global hawk dives lower.

Every missile fails when it gets within a few hundred meters of **_Wo._** They tumble and fall into the ocean. One through a freak of aerodynamics manages to stay in the air and on target long enough to hit her forcefield.

When replayed in slow motion, the 15 feet long missile looks huge against her less than 6 feet height. But it disintegrates against her forcefield . There is no massive explosion, just the fuel going up. She does use her force field to part the burning debris as she steams past the collusion, unhurt.

 ** _Wo_** lifts her head back and laughs.

Everybody can now see that she is an albino human woman wearing a black and white bodysuit, a cape and a cane with a tentacled monster on her head. She is glowing a sickly yellow. Her eyes glow a dull gold.

 ** _"Wo."_**

A turret on that monstrous head points at the Global Hawk and fires. The picture vanishes.

"She 's gone, sir." A rating says, shakily. "Back to invisibility. No data."

Silence, except for somebody quietly sobbing.

Someone retches.

Admiral Scott notes that on the map, **_Wo_** is over Challenger Deep. He knows, now, why the Kanmusu are calling them Abyssals. She is directly over the deepest Abyss there is on Earth.

Somebody quietly says, "Cthulhu is an albino fetish-loving freak."

Silence.

Depressing, oppressing, frightening silence

"Come here you monster, then you will see hell again!" Over the open radio, Fubuki yells.

"I've got a torpedo with your name on it!"

"Stop being afraid of us and fight!"

"Come here and get a real fight!"

"My guns will show you who is boss!"

"Coward!"

The other Kanmusu also begin to broadcast insults and taunts at Wo.

Somehow, though, these taunts brighten the spirits of everyone feeling oppressed and frightened by Wo's laughter.

'I should have emptied the magazines into her, maybe that can overload her field. The habit of one ship one weapon was just too strong. I couldn't justify it to myself, much less to Washington. Now, I can, but I don't think she'll give me that chance again.' The Admiral thinks.

"I would like the area of effect of the field that killed the missiles and the F-18." Admiral Scott orders, softly.

"Aye, Aye, Sir."

"Does the telemetry of the missiles and the F-18 show anything?" He asks.

Noises, trying to attract his attention, are coming from the screen showing the Washington conference room, but Admiral Scott ignores them, as he works on restoring confidence, first.

"Nothing obvious, sir. It just stops. At the transmitter, from what I can tell."

"Hmm. When Fubuki tried to use her smartphone it didn't work." He says. "It must based on the same principals, but much, much stronger."

"Yes, sir."

"Try and keep a high flying drone, or F-18 on her wake. I still want her location. Make sure you update the _Corpus Christi_ and the other attack subs. She has the night to stalk and try to sink her escorts. We may not be able to hurt her, but her escorts are fair game. Warn her about that field. I would hate it if she lost power underwater."

"Yes, sir!" The admiral's calm orders are finishing what the shipgirls started. The crew of the Reagan and the 7th fleet, as they are relayed the orders, start to get to work.

They have a leader.

One rating whispers to another, "That is what they call 3am in morning courage."

The other nods.

"Sailor." Admiral Scott turns to sailor that made the comment by Cthulhu.

"Sir?"

"Everyone, do not use that word in any official report. That is an order. She is not Cthulhu or part of that fictional universe. Using that word will lead to mistakes. Call them Abyssals, like the ShipGirls. Call her." A pause for thought. " A **_Wo_** -class carrier. Tomorrow we will find out if she is an escort, light and fleet carrier. But my guess is she's a fleet carrier and given the WWII origins of the Shipgirls, consider her an Essex for planning purposes."

"Aye, aye, sir!"

"Inform Guam that I want the evacuees loaded by midnight. I want the ships on the way to Tokyo by 1 am. They will need as much darkness as they can get."

"Admiral Scott!" Comes from the screen with Washington on it. The Assistant Secretary of the Navy is speaking. He is a new appointee, who has strongly supported the US Military Industrial Complex. He is pale and shaking, looking like he is in shock. One hand has a handkerchief that is sweeping up sweat on his forehand.

"Sir, Assistant Secretary?" He turns to it.

"You are still planning to evacuate Guam?"

"Of course. I'm not going leave anybody I can save. Not with **** ** _that_** in the area." He says harshly.

" ** _That_** has totally changed the situation, Admiral."

Admiral Scott nods. "Changed reality in my opinion."

"Yes. Well. You can't beat her and if you stay and fight you'll lose, so it's time to cut our loses. Cancel the evacuation, they'll be safer on the island. Return to Tokyo."

The conference room in Washington erupts as the uniformed military disagrees with him and the business suited politicians back the assistant secretary.

Admiral Scott's eyes flick to the screen that is carrying the Joint Chiefs. Black.

The White House. Black.

 ** _Wo's_** laughter he assumes was too much for them. 'But, sooner or later, Washington will order him to return to Tokyo.' He thinks.

He mentally shrugs, 'If they delay just a few hours the evacuation will be underway and if I am able to protest and delay long enough, I can still rescue something out of this mess.'

"Inform, Commander Pacific Fleet of the verbal order and request a written and signed copy. Only then will such an order go into effect."

"Aye, aye, sir!"

"Tell Guam that my orders are to evacuate Guam and they are to ignore any orders to the contrary from Washington. No matter who is the source."

"Sir?"

"I'm not going run with my tail between my legs." Admiral Scott growls. "Tomorrow we may die, but those civilians will not."

The room starts to clap and yell, but the Admiral's voice stops it.

"Stop the task force 10 miles from Guam and steam in circles. We will train out here. _Kurama_ and _McCampbell_ are to oversee the ships at Saipan and Guam. Tell their captains that they have the full authority to relieve any civilian that is not doing their job. And that job is getting evacuees on board safely and on time." Admiral Scott orders.

"Yes, sir."

"Yes." The Surface Warfare Officer asks, "Are we going to attack it again?"

Admiral Scott shakes his head. "Until we know more, until we are better trained, no. Right now we would lose a large part of our air group and munitions for no damage. We are in a defensive fight right now. She holds the whip."  
He shrugs, "Until we can figure out how that anti-tech field of hers works."

"We could set the missile to hit using simple ballistic courses, after their engines go dead?"

"Model it." He orders. "But, I'd bet between the non-aerodynamic air flow around a tumbling missile and her speed and maneuverability, hits would be few, I'd need to see how often we would hit, before I order any more attacks. If she decloaks, then, of course, we will empty the missile magazines into her."

"Yes, sir."

The Air Group Commander turns to the Admiral and says, "Sir. Do you want the report on the cyborg thing, now."

"Yes. What killed it?"

"It looks like a combination of attacks, than anything specific. Sir"

He grunts. "Details."

The Air Group Commander reads from his tablet, "Radar, IR and Laser sensors did not work, so those guidance systems are useless. GPS guided munitions: It was mobile enough that we could not predict its future course accurately enough to get a hit. In more confined waters, or against a slower, less maneuverable target they should be useful. Direct remote control: The RO can guide the weapons. But, at altitude, a man-sized target is very difficult to hit. We did not hit it. Training may correct this."

"Aiming for the wake?" The Admiral asks.

"Tried sir. The computers keep confusing the regular waves with wakes. It is a fixable problem, but one that looks like it'll take a computer patch a bit more complex than something we can generate on the fly."

He nods. "Continue."

He looks at the Admiral, "Coming down close, we did get some hits, but that brought us within its AA envelope. Nobody was shot down. But, on landing, two F-18's will not fly tomorrow and a third probably shouldn't. Also, this was under the condition of totally air superiority, the RO could concentrate solely on the target. In a contested airspace, sir, accuracy will suffer. sir."

The Admiral nods,

"Sub-munitions could not penetrate its forcefield. Unguided bombs missed. I'll have to find a WWII training manual on skip-bombing, before they'll be effective. It will take that training, but they will be effective."

He gulps, "Also, every missile that hit it, died an average of 2.3 meters from it. No transmissions, no power, it looks like."

"The anti-tech field grows. Fubuki only affected her handheld smartphone, a Cyborg is over 2 meters, my guess is that **_Wo_** 's field has a radius of 250 to 300 meters. So, assuming it scales logarithmically: Heavy cruisers, somewhere in the tens of meters. Battleships, the same or larger than Wo's." The Admiral speculates.

"Getting around that will be a bitch, sir."

Admiral Scott nods. "Since we have the Kanmusu to test things on, we have a chance. But right now, dumb bombs with simple contact fuses are the only thing that will work as normal."

"Shit."

"I have a feeling that we will have to expand our curses. Shit and fuck seem to small for what they are doing to the laws of nature." Admiral Scott muses.

"Sir, we missed with a lot of munitions against the cyborg, and have 3, really, F-18's down for one kill. Sir, that does not sound good for future encounters. I'd hate to think what it would take to kill that bitch, **_Wo_**. Do we have enough munitions?"

Admiral Scott nods. "What worries me is future encounters as well. How quickly can they replace that light cruiser? It takes years for us to replace a ship, and months for the aircraft, especially if you include the pilot training. From the briefing papers on Kanmusu, they are getting new Shipgirls on a regular basis We must assume the same for Abyssals. If so, then they can afford to lose every encounter, but win the war since they will still have forces on the field, when we do not."

"Yes, sir." The Air Group Commander says sadly. The room echoes him, as what the Admiral says is passed around.

The room grows depressed, again at the thought of an endless fight against an infinite foe.

A few minutes later.

"Sir. Commander Pacific Fleet. In Private."

End chapter

A future chapter will be from **_Wo_** 's POV.

 ** _Everything is going as planned._**

Comments?

Thank you for reading  
Jeff


	5. Chapter 5

Begin chapter: Resolve

"That was fast. I'll retire to my office. Give me, ah, five minutes." The Admiral replies.

"Yes, Sir. He said OK, but he sounded miserable."

In the Admiral's room.

Admiral Scott is sitting behind his desk, looking at the screen across the room.

The screen shows the Commander of the Pacific Fleet. Admiral Scott salutes and says, "Sir."

"Frank, I have just had the most unpleasant conversation I have ever had or imagined I would be part of. And, I am about to have another." Admiral Scott's boss says, wearily. His eyes look dead. "That thing" He shakes his head. "It has everyone panicked and spooked. Calls from all over the world are coming in, or so I'm told."

"You should be here." Admiral Scott sighs. "Ed. Before you say anything more, I think you need to hear something."

"Frank, I've known you since I was a senior at the Academy and you were a snot nosed pelb. If you're about to say what I think you will. Stop. Think about your men and your career."

"There are things more important than those, sir." His voice is calm.

A pause. "Go ahead, Admiral Scott."

Admiral Scott stands up and places his hands behind his back, "Sir. In my professional opinion, my ethical and moral beliefs and my personal opinion, abandoning the civilians on Guam is a crime. We, no, I would be aiding that thing. It wants us to run away without it having to lift a finger." He takes a deep breath.

"If I were to receive such an order, I will and must resign as an Admiral in the US Navy and will request to be abandoned on Guam. The Captain of the Ronald Reagan can handle the simple task of pointing the ships at Tokyo and trying for a speed record."

The sound of breathing. "That was almost word for word what I thought you would say, you stiff necked SOB." The Admiral in charge of the Pacific growls. "The Captain's reaction to this order?"

"If he is the man I think he is, the same. Perhaps with added profanity." A ghost of a grin, maybe tries to appear.

"How far down the chain would I have to go?"

"One of the Destroyer Captains will accept it. If only because with the chain of command destroyed, giving battle would be useless."

"And you think you can beat that thing?"

Admiral Scott shakes his head, no. "I can kill its air group and, I believe, defeat the forces we have spotted massing nearby. I can prevent it from achieving some of its goals, I believe. But at the end of tomorrow it will still be afloat. Nothing I have can sink her." He shrugs. He smiles, "No. I do have one thing."

"Nukes? You know that you will not get a release for that."

"No. I know that." He shakes his head, "Besides given what happened at Operation Crossroads and that anti-tech field of hers. I'm not sure that nukes can do anything more than ruffle her hair. It is the Reagan herself. That forcefield of hers will not stop the Reagan in a ram. But, that will never happen."

He stakes a breath. "The Japanese Kanmusu can sink her, I believe. But, it will not sail into their torpedo range, not tomorrow."

"And you and 7th Fleet?"

He grins, "I have it on the authority of the Kanmusu that Ronald Reagan will not sink tomorrow and will reach Tokyo. And somehow, I believe them."

"How? They are little teenage girls?"

"Yes, they are. But, there is something about them, sir. Something that I'm sure can not be transmitted, but only felt in person. I am willing to place my life, the lives of 7th Fleet and the lives of the civilians in their hands. They might be destroyed tomorrow, but it will not happen quickly or fast."

"That is not an argument that will help. Not now. Not in Washington." He sighs. "And I already used the others that you left unsaid, Frank."

"Yes, sir."

"But your statement about resigning, that I can use. I will hold the order and ask for clarification." He sighs and rubs his face. "That is all I can do."

Admiral Scott nods.

"So you've bought some time, Frank. Use it well. Good luck, my friend." He finishes in a whisper.

"Thank you, my friend. We will meet again. Sometime, someplace."

The Admiral of the Pacific Fleet wordlessly nods.

The screen blanks.

Admiral Scott looks down at his desk. His resignation is already written. All it needs is his signature and the signatures of a couple of witnesses. He folds it up and places it in his pocket and leaves the room.

When he gets to the CIC, everybody is standing around, some are talking, so are clapping, and others are staring in shock.

"What happened? Was my conversation broadcast?" He asks.

The Chief of Staff, closes his mouth, clears his throat and says, "We just heard Tokyo try to order the Kanmusu back to Tokyo. Fubuki refused the order, sir. Told the Japanese Admiral exactly how much power had over her."

Admiral Scott coughs into his hand, and says, "Trying to force them out of a fight? Maybe in the future, but not tonight! Nothing under heaven will prevent those girls from fighting in the morning."

"That's pretty much what she said, sir." The Chief of Staff swallows. "Do we have new orders?"

The room goes stone cold silent.

"I brought up a couple of points they did not think of and, well, they are rethinking the order they did not give me." He shrugs. "We have a few minutes, maybe an hour before we know if my points were enough for them to rip the orders up."

"Thank you, sir." The Chief of Staff says after a heart-felt sigh. "I have no idea what would have happened then, especially knowing that the Shipgirls are staying."

Admiral Scott sighs and looks at his Chief of Staff and a friend for the last few years. 'Before the night is over I must call Ed and tell him that my Chief of Staff is not to promoted, ever. The answer to that statement is obvious.' He thinks

"Sir. Fubuki wants to talk to you."

"Yes, Fubuki?"

"Sir, I'm requesting permission to land on Guam to eat and resupply, sir." Her voice is hard and full of emotion, no doubt left over from her previous conversation.

"It can not be done at sea?"

"Not right now, sir. I can see that is something we are going to have to work on." Fubuki says, apologetically.

"One hour, then I need you back here to train."

"Yes, Sir! One hour. Training for?"

"You six get to pretend you're assaulting us. We have to train against Abyssals and you're the closest I've got."

"Understood, sir, with invisibility?"

"Not at first, but eventually."

"How long?"

"That, I'm afraid, will depend on you. What sort of rest will you need?"

A pause, then Fubuki says, "A few hours of sleep would be welcome, sir. However, I believe that the battle tomorrow will go better if we spend all of the night training, instead."

"Very well. Training will continue until 3 or 4 am. I'll want to give everybody a chance for fresh hot meal and an hour to catch their breath, before dawn."

"Good Idea! Sir!" Nenohi exclaims. "We went into battle with only a cold rice ball."

"If that!" Yayoi sniffs.

"Before you leave us, stop by the _Mustin_ , they'll give you some training devices. Use any free time to read the instructions. You'll need them, tonight. And Fubuki, they'll give you a computer tablet, do not worry about operating it. We'll fix it so we can remotely operate it. We'll use it to communicate tonight and tomorrow."

"Yes, sir."

As the Kanmusu travel to Guam they start to sing the old Navy training song, "Through the day, throughout the week."

Link

The Admiral tells his staff, "Alright. We have a little more than an hour before the Kanmusu return, I want an emergency training program worked out and started before they arrive. Let's move people."

They move.

"I want to hear that argument that Fubuki had, please." He asks his aide as people scramble. "I may not be be able to speak it fast, but I can comprehend Japanese well enough."

After listening to the conversation, "Fubuki?"

"Sir?"

"I am going to call you on your phone in a few minutes, be waiting for that, please."

"Aye, aye. Sir."

 **Outside the Flag Bridge.**

"Fubuki." Admiral Scott says into his smartphone.

"Sir?"

"I've just listened your conversation, Fubuki. I am wondering, though, how many times did you practiced it and, now that I think about, our conversation earlier."

A moment of silence. "As a whole, that was the first, sir. Parts of it I was coached by Kongo-sempai, Akagi-sempai and my Admiral."

He grunts in surprise. "Explain, if you can."

A sigh, "When we realized that we would have to cooperate with US 7th Fleet, that caused a bit of a problem."

Admiral Scott snorts at that understatement.

"I, finally, volunteered to be one to the first. Kongo-sempai and the girls coached me on potential problems. It was from those sessions that I based my explanations early today from."

He nods, wordlessly.

"When we found out about the mission to Saipan, the Admiral, Kongo-sempai and Akagi-sempai decided it was a trap. The obvious challenge in the blockade, meant the Abyssals wanted a fight and they felt they had the forces to kill 7th Fleet. We volunteered to help and fight."

She sighs, "Given the danger, we chose those of us that died early in the war. Not only are we among the most expendable of us, but we, also, generally have the least bad memories of US Forces. Inazuma-chan, especially, wanted to come, but Akatsuki recently arrived. Kongo-sempai was forbidden from volunteering.

"Then the Admiral called Kongo-sempai, Akagi-sempai and I into his office and predicted that his superiors would order our retreat." She swallows, "Sir, are they really that cowardly?"

"Not really, Fubuki. They are surprised and frightened by **Wo**. They do not have our training. We, no our instinct is to attack when surprised, they do not have that instinctive reaction. Plus they know that fighting rarely ends cleanly, so they have to be responsible and look for alternate solutions, so delaying things until they are sure that there must be a fight. Fubuki, tomorrow, will be the largest naval battle since Ten-go. There has been decades of peace. And, for the Japanese government, well, we sort of made sure that Japan would not fight again."

Fubuki sniffs, "People were tired after more than a decade of war, sir, and upset at the military for lying to them. And, as I understand it, there was pride in rebuilding, then more pride in succeeding as a first class nation. War, we found out, wasn't necessary for us to become successful. But, we will fight to keep it." Her voice is full of determination.

Her voice brightens, "Anyway, he predicted something would happen and we would be ordered to retreat. He needed a scene that would cause the politicians to take notice of their mistake. I gave him the scene he wished for. We, Kongo-sempai, Akagi-sempai and I, wanted to make it clear about why we were here. Sir."

Admiral Scott chuckles, "You did that. Whose words?"

"Mine, sir. Kongo-sempai and Akagi-sempai made suggestions, but the words are mine."

"Good words. Fubuki, very blunt, but good words."

"Thank you, sir!"

He clears his throat, "So, you knew it would be a trap and you sailed into it anyways."

"Yes, sir. There are times when you must fight or bow you head for your opponent to remove it."

"So there is. But, I wonder." A pause as Admiral Scott thinks .

"Wonder? Sir?"

"Whither or not you have told me everything."

"Sir." A pause. "One of my engineers was an amateur historian. He studied the American Revolution a lot, said it helped his English. He had a quote I remember. 'Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.' Sir."

Admiral Scott laughs, "Keep it secret, Fubuki. But, pass along my heartfelt thanks to your Admiral, if I can not."

"Sir, I do not understand your statement, but. I will pass it on, perhaps he will know what it means. _Promise_." The last word is full of emotion.

" _Thank you, Fubuki."_ His voice cracks with emotion. "Fubuki, again, my apologizes for not taking time to train with you in Tokyo Bay." He sighs. "I just refused to believe my eyes. Unforgivable in retrospect."

"Admiral, you should have heard what the my own native officers said to me the day when I appeared at Maizuru Naval Base where I was constructed." Her grin is audible in her voice.

"I've read a translation of his report." He chuckles. "That is one heavily white washed report."

"I see." She says slowly.

"It's in the briefing papers that the Japanese government sent the US." He says rapidly.

'Damn. She is still sensitive about how we read their radio messages during the war. Change the subject.' He thinks.

A pause

"Go, eat and then we train." He says.

"Train hard, sir."

"I will be ordering the small guns to hit you girls."

"Good. The more we are hurt tonight, the more we will hurt the Abyss tomorrow."

 **Click.**

JMSDF _Kurama_ departure was delayed, as it had to transfer the spare Kanmusu ammo to the US ships. Each US DD gets four small wooden boxes. The look like even a person as small as the Kanmusu can care it, but ship cranes must be used to transfer them. Each small box weighs tons. Two of the boxes have 3 smaller boxes with a torpedo (Kanmusu only) in them. The two boxes are filled with 120 individually crated 120mm and 127mm shells (Kanmusu only).

Before the first transfer.

"Admiral, sir." The Captain of the _Barry_ says, "My engineers have looked at those crates. They should be bending the deck, but nothing is happening. The back of the envelope calculations puts the density at unreal, impossible levels, sir? Sir, I know the Japanese put them on this ship via crane and they carried them with no problems, but, Sir?""

"Magic." The Admiral explains, "Call it, ahhh, Magical Sparkly Shipgirl Bullshit. Note it, I'm sure there are scientists that will love it. But, just accept it for now."

"MSSB. Thank you, sir. I do not understand, sir, and I will try to do as you ordered."

"That's all that I can ask."

_

Forty five minutes later, as Admiral Scott is waiting for his Chief of Staff to put the finishing touches on tonight's training program, he watches his tablet. He has a video feed from Guam on it.

The Kanmusu's arrival and appearance, made famous at Tokyo Bay, draws a crowd.

One of the civilian evacuees is filming and broadcasting the Kanmusu as they eat a simple meal of rice on the beach. There is a ring of marines guarding them, on his orders. They have finished eating and drinking, as well as stocking up with the spare ammo that the Kurama carried. They have been going over the training gear, but have apparently broken up after an argument.

Fubuki and a couple others are headed to the civilians. The civilians push against the line of marines, and a little girl slips through. The other Kanmusu also have civilians around them, as well.

As he watches Fubuki deal the little girl, with her parents hovering near by, laughing and smiling, he wonders, 'How much time has she spent with civilians? Fubuki, Inazuma, Murakumo, Samidare, and Sazanami just appeared one day just 50 days ago. The same day as freighters around the world began to vanish. From my brief, they have sortied on at least 40 of those days. Japan has already decided to segregate the Kanmusu, how much time will she spend in the future?'

He thinks, sadly. 'This war will last a long time, tomorrow is only the end the prologue. As a ship Fubuki and Kanmusu can only change physically. As a girl, though, she changes mentally. What will years do to the Kanmusu?'

"Sir. The Secretary of the Navy wishes to speak with you." His aide says.

"I'll be in my office in five minutes."

"He wants to talk to you, now, in the presence of everyone, sir."

Admiral Scott straightens his uniform and orders, "put him the screen."

The Secretary of the Navy appears. He is new to the office. He is a lifelong politician that received the office as a reward for helping elect the President. He is pale under his hollywood tan.

"Sir."

The Secretary holds up a piece of paper. "You should know that the Commander of the Pacific Fleet bought you this chance to tell me your side of the story with his commission." A pause. "Begin."

"Thank you, sir. I will be quick.."

The Secretary nods.

"First: In my professional opinion having the 7th Fleet retreat without a fight tonight is a mistake. The world will be looking to the US for leadership during this crisis. Retreating from the first battle will irreparably harm our reputation. Sir." A breath.

"Second. I believe you need to listen to this, sir." An order to a rating, "Replay the conversation between Fubuki and her Admiral, please."

Click. The 7th fleet has the translation programs and Japanese speakers that an english translation of the conversation is available.

"Destroyer Fubuki," The voice of an older Japanese man.

"Admiral?"

"There are so few of you, we can not risk losing you, which will happen tomorrow if you stay, so I'm giving you new orders. You are ordered to travel to Tokyo. You are to leave Mariana Islands waters as soon as possible. No possible delays are acceptable." A pause. "Do you understand these orders?"

"Sir." A pause and she takes a deep breath. "I understand the words, but the reasoning behind them is wrong. I will not follow them."

The other Kanmusu start to speak, but Fubuki roars, "Quiet! This decision is mine and mine alone to bear to the consequences. You are just following my orders!"

"Fubuki! You must obey!"

"Sir, when I return to Tokyo you will punish me as I deserve to be punished. I will not resist. Disobeying you is mutiny and I deserve to die because of it. But I will die knowing that I did the right thing and saved civilians, not saving my, the Navies and the nation of Japan's cowardly ass."

Silence.

"Sir. This is an explanation, not an excuse, for there is none for my actions. When I returned and was made aware of the actions during the Greater East Asia War, I promised myself that I would not allow myself to help with or perform evil acts. I, the DesRon I command, and the 7th Fleet are in position and can delay the Abyssals long enough that the civilians should be able to get to Tokyo with little problems."

A pause.

"While that does risk myself and the Kanmusu under me, that is unavoidable. If we were in Tokyo Bay or even more than a few hours from Saipan, your orders, while distasteful, would be correct and obeyed. We would not get here in time to get more than a few civilians, and during wartime, occasionally, you must sacrifice people, and sometimes that includes civilian lives."

"Explain why you are under the mistaken opinion that you can rescue anyone?" She is asked in a cold voice.

"We, the Kanmusu under my command and the US 7th Fleet, are the Abyssals primary target, sir. Assuming the civilians start traveling to Tokyo with the next few hours and assuming that we delay the Abyssals at least part of the morning, they will get enough of a head start that they should be able to escape this trap."

She gulps and her voice cracks. "The delaying action and the fighting retreat that follows will cause deaths and destruction among us, so how many of us that will reach Tokyo is unknown."

"7th Fleet will be ordered back to Japan tonight, as well."

Silence, for a few seconds. "Sir, in my opinion, the Admiral of the 7th Fleet will do the right thing. He is an honorable man and in my opinion, knows that you have to fight evil, or you are evil. He will stay."

"My superiors feel that your lives are more important and can not be risked."

"Sir. War is not only facts but feelings. If we retreat from Wo, that will cause an unknown but large loss of morale. Our deaths, while painful, though, will provide you with an example for everyone to follow and will be a morale boost, like 'Remember Pearl Harbor' was."

Silence.

"Sir," she says earnestly, "We were chosen because we knew that this was a trap, and we are the most expendable of the Kanmusu. We all died very early during the Greater East Asia War, so we are the most inexperienced of all."

Her Admirals grunts. "How can you be so cavalier with my orders?"

"Sir. I swore an oath to uphold the current constitution, but older oath made when I was created still lives. I am sworn to protect the Emperor of Japan. He has made it plain that he wishes for us to obey the current constitution. I have accepted that. But, if we follow your orders, I am throwing my reputation on a dung heap. That is fine, since I am following orders, my reputation is yours to destroy.

"If we follow your orders, we will destroy the reputation of the Navy and Japan, itself. That is acceptable, since the Emperor has placed that reputation in your hands to do with them as you will. But, sir, those orders will destroy his reputation, and that would violate my oath to protect him. So, I must refuse them."

"Finally, sir. I have, every Kanmusu has, sworn an oath to help mankind in its fight against evil. I am facing great evil here. I am in a position to thwart that evil's plans. To obey my oath, I must fight evil. Saving the civilians is most effective way that I can fulfill my oath."

Fubuki speak softly, "Sir, I will be sunk, again. I will be asked, then, did I fight evil, or did I aid it like before? There is only one possible answer to that question."

"Now, sir. I have a battle to prepare for. I will meet you at Yokosuka."

Click.

Into the silence, Admiral Scott says, "Fubuki spoke in absolutes, sir. You either help her or you help her enemies. Should the Kanmusu win this war, they will control the oceans, I want mankind to look them in the eyes and say we fought beside you, so respect our wish to rule ourselves. If we could help them and choose not to help them, to aid evil in their possible opinion, I believe they will be better ruler that Wo, but they will rule the Earth, not mankind. Sir"

"The Japanese have promised everyone that they have them under orders." The Secretary says, disbelievingly.

"They do, now, but who can see what the future will bring?"

"Why are you so sure that this will be a long war?"

"!n the past two weeks they have revealed 8 task forces. Killing **Wo** , is beyond the 7th Fleet's present ability. At present the only force that can met them on equal terms is the Kanmusu. And they are already outnumbered."

A breath.

"Third, sir. The enemy force that hit King's Bay is still in the Atlantic, and in my opinion, more enemy units are coming. At this time, there is nothing to prevent a floatilla of the black whale things from sailing up the Potomac and shelling Washington. There is nothing to prevent a being similar to **Wo** from standing in the Atlantic, off the coast, and sending its planes to hit Washington.

"I am in a position to test methods that can kill the enemy. We have already shown that their planes can be shoot down, the whale and cyborg things can be killed, but the data of such killings is confused and partial. The damage and deaths we are to experience is needed, so we can develop the right tools to fight them."

"I feel it is best for that test to happen in the middle of the Pacific, rather than at DC. Sir."

A pause for breath. "And, sir, in case it has not been pointed out already. There must be something that we can do that will kill **Wo.** If she was immune to everything we could do do, she would not be playing around and using her immunity to technology to hide from us. She has to fear us, somehow."

"She could be afraid the Shipgirls."

Admiral Scott shakes his head, no. "Why hide in the Atlantic? No, we, mankind, can somehow kill them. What that way is unknown, but hopefully we learn some clues tomorrow."

Admiral Scott straightens and states, "I, and the 7th Fleet, await your orders, sir."

A pause as the secretary looks at the Admiral and his gathered staff .All of them are standing at attention.

"That thing's magical fear effect causes panic attacks, or so I've been told."

"Yes, sir. Several suicides have been recorded. I have, at least, two pilots that I will not place at risk, tomorrow. The most intense effect, though, appears to happen at close range. Given the expected combat ranges, the effect will be distracting, but I believe that with trained and prepared personnel, we can resist it. Sir"

"That fear effect could have caused an overreaction." The Secretary says in an undertone.

The Admiral wants.

"Your orders to evacuate Guam are confirmed, Admiral Scott."

"Thank you, sir."

The admiral's staff cheers.

 **End Chapter**

The Oval House, White House. Washington DC

The President is speaking, "OK. I understand what happened, now, and agree with the 7th Fleet's orders. There is, though, two points that I still require additional explanations."

"Yes, sir." The Chairman of the Joint Staff replies. The assembled Joint Chiefs and senior officers are in the room.

"You mentioned something about '3am courage'?"

"A saying based on General Grant's reaction at Shiloh, sir. He was woken up at 3am and told that the enemy was attacking with surprise and from the flank of his army. A situation that normally called for an immediate retreat. Instead, he calmly, gave the orders that in 48hrs gave him the victory. A victory that the CSA never recovered from." His says.

"Every since Frank Scott flew into Afghanistan, I knew he had it." The Navy Chief of Staff says, "That is why he has been pushed up the chain. You put an officer with that in the highest possible position."

The President nods. "OK. That makes sense. Now explain why you mention an Operation Crossroads and why that convinced you that nukes are useless here?"

The Chairman says, "After WWII we tested the effects of a tactical atomic bomb against a selection of warships. Most basically survived with only limited damage."

"May I?" The Navy Chief asks. The Chairman nods.

"The _Saratoga_ , a carrier similar, we believe, to **Wo** , sunk but it took two bombs. The _Nagato_ , a Japanese Battleship, took those two bombs and stayed afloat for 5 days before sinking. But, sir, in both cases they had wartime damage that was not fixed, that helped the bombs in sinking them, especially with the _Nagato_. Given our inability to put a bomb on top of her head, you just can not expect an instant kill, sir."

"I see." The President says. "So, until you fix that problem, our nukes are useless."

The Air Force Chief of Staff coughs. "Not totally, sir, we are just saying that they are not going to instantly kill them."

"How many?"

The Joint Chiefs look at each other and nod to the Chairman.

He grimaces. "At least three, sir. But that's probably too low."

"If the calls I have received tonight are any indications, your prediction will be tested by somebody." The President muses.

Thank you for reading  
Jeff


	6. Chapter 6

The Battle of the Mariana Islands

Start chapter: Training

When the Kanmusu come back the training begins. During this time the 7th Fleet slowly moves south and southwest of Guam, to be position for battle tomorrow.

The civilian evacuation goes, basically, smoothly. They have had a couple of days warning, and Wo's appearance stopped any lingering problems. Generally the sick and children are going to the airport waiting for the passenger airliners that are on there way. The ships are getting the adults, plus what families that refuse to be parted.

Military dependents are being loaded on the ships, but active military personnel and volunteers are digging in.

Due to inevitable minor SNAFUs, the boarding finishes and they leave at 2am. To solve those SNAFU'S two ship captains were escorted off their ships. A third was handcuffed to his bed in his cabin.

The military bases on the island have been stripped of heavy machine guns and light cannons to be placed on the ships. A platoon of marines and naval ratings have been placed on each ship for crowd control and to use the added weapons. They have, also, been given anti-tank rockets and anything else that might be useful.

Admiral Scott ordered the Navy base on Guam to supply his force with as many rounds they can fit inside the hulls of his ships. Each DD and Cruiser will have more than the standard number of rounds to fire tomorrow, even taking into account the number of rounds that will be used tonight. Helicopters ferry more stores all night.

At first the Kanmusu attack allowing modern technology to fully work against them.

The vest Arare is wearing starts to buzz, the vests on all the Kanmusu start buzzing, when they are still below the horizon. "That's cheating!", "This is not fair!", "We want a fair fight!" "This suck's!" "Let's try it again!", "Let us have a chance!"

"Sorry, girls. Guided Missiles. Defeating you before you can hurt us is a goal." One of the DD radios.

Fubuki says, wearily. "I know that. But, it is just we wanted to achieve that goal by being better trained and faster than the you. A fair fight, really. At the Sea Battle of Savo Island your Admiral was better than ours and so you won. This? You were shooting a whale who can only stare back."

She sighs. "But. All Right. You have proved your superiority in a fair fight. Very well. Let's see how well we do in an unfair fight. Girls."

"Ah! Shit! They are gone, sir!"

The Admiral of the 7th Fleet smiles, "Now, we will see how good we are."

The next few hours are a humbling experience for the 7th Fleet.

Given the fact the training vests will not work, the US ships are firing live rounds from machine guns, small cannons, and CIWS at them. The 127mm cannon uses practice rounds. Missiles will be simulated by laser.

The number of times a shipgirls forcefield flashes will determine the winner of each attack.

The Kanmusu will use practice rounds for their 25mm and paint rounds for their 120mm/127mm. For torpedoes? Fubuki offered to removing the firing pin from a few and fire them, but that was rejected. Kanmusu will drop their invisibility for a second yelling out the target and computers will simulate the attack.

If a Kanmusu gets close enough to touch the hull of a ship, that is an automatic win.

The first Kanmusu attack.

"Kiarasgi." Fubuki orders. "Sink the _Ronald Reagan_."

She smiles, nods, and speeds away.

The first problem, and one that the US forces never really solved, is simply spotting the Kanmusu in their approach. It is night, partly cloudy. Helicopters are busy moving supplies and other duties. Except for a CAP around the Reagan and CAP over the Guam and Saipan, the airplane pilots are told to sleep, so they can be rested for tomorrow.

Kanmusu are man-sized and their wakes are small, compared to ships. Light gathering and IR scopes do not work.

The 7th Fleet learns to respect IJN Destroyers at night, the way their ancestors respected them off Guadalcanal. They normally can get within a several hundred meters before they are spotted.

Kisaragi's first attack was successful, her level of maneuverability shocked the 7th Fleet, until she got close enough for the CIWS on the Reagan to hit her. That concentrated and large number of 20mm rounds did break her forcefield and caused minor damage to her. After that they reduced the CIWS to only 5 rounds at a time.

Against one Kanmusu the 7th Fleet normally prevented a Kanmusu from touching the _Ronald Reagan_. Hits on via her torpedoes did happen. Hits via her gunfire were common.

Fubuki was hesitant and made a few mistakes at first. But as the night grew long, ordering the Kanmusu became easier.

"Just keep your orders simple." Admiral Scott advised her early on, "Remain calm. Do not yell. Do not get excited. Chose what to do quickly and follow through with it. Do not change your mind in the middle of a maneuver. Sometimes you will make the wrong choice, but even a wrong choice is better than no choice. I know you were trained in complex, multi-unit actions, but they did not work for the Japanese during the war. Keep It Simple Stupid." A selection of his comments to Fubuki

"Sir. These results." The Chief of Staff says as he waves around his tablet.

"It's night. During the day the enemy would not able to get so close. Good Training. We will learn more and faster by being beat. Learning that the CIWS is effective against them might the difference between life and death. That gives each ship several effective weapons, not just the cannon."

"The coordination between the spotters on deck the men with the men directing the gun and missiles inside the hull is just too slow, sir."

"Expected. It will improve."

"Sir. We are getting hits from missiles."

"I do not consider our jury rig to be real life. Tomorrow, we will miss with them. Fubuki? Try two ship elements, next."

"Yes, Admiral!" Fubuki's smile is evident in her voice.

"Sir. While they were traveling, Fubuki did some tests with her smartphone. Here is the report." A rating says.

"Thank You." The Admiral reads the notes ."A centimeter deep field around her. Even removed the battery to tested it and it failed. It's twisting some very basic laws into knots. Hers turns off and on with her invisibility to tech. But Wo's was on with her invisibility was off, so it is two separate effects. The scientists will love this report."

"Anything that we need to adjust for?" The Chief of Staff asks.

"Against the DD's? It means that our fuses may not work. Any fuse that does not go off outside of say a couple of feet we should not count on that working. Judging by the three hundred meter radius around Wo. I wonder how big is Kongo's or Akagi's?"

"So, our rounds. They may not explode in the whales."

"Yes. Still they are big powerful bullets. They'll work, just not as well as we are used to."

The training continues, with two ship elements attacking.

With two ships, the Kanmusu normally sink the Reagan, but the Kanmusu do take damage and normally lose a Kanmusu in the process. 7th Fleet reacts well to them, they are simply too close for them to react in time to stop both.

"Sir. The first airliner is loaded and taxiing for take-off." A rating tells the Admiral.

He nods and sighs. He did not like approving the air evacuation, but given his stance he could not stop it. Carrier ops in WWII were mainly by daylight, but a previous attempt at a night evacuation failed due to enemy fighters. He ordered a CAP over the airports, but how well it will work, he does not know.

"Sir! The airport!" Everybody looks at the screen showing the airport.

While an attempt was made at a blackout, safety regs prevented a totally blackout. The runway lights are on, like normal, as well.

That was a mistake.

The napalm bombs landing proved that.

"Sir! The pilots are reporting that they being laughed at! They are ignoring us to kill the civilians! We can't track them at night long enough to get a shot!"

Tears fall from Admiral Scott's eyes, and the eyes of everyone else as they watch hundreds, probably thousands, of children and the sick die.

The training grounds to a halt as everyone stops and watches the massacre. The Kanmusu float next to a DD and watch it from dropped tablets.

"Sir." The Chief of Staff says quietly, as the bombs stop falling. "I'll order fire and rescue teams to the scene."

For the first time, Admiral Scott does not automatically reply. "Why?" He whispers. "That will delay your attack on me, **Wo**. Why? They would be there after we…" He swallows. "They were leaving and you could not allow it." He shakes himself. "Yes?" He ask his Chief of Staff standing at his side.

"Fire and rescue teams and emergency medical personnel, sir?"

"Of course. See to it."

A minute later.

"Sir. The Captain of the Reagan."

"Yes, Captain?"

"Later today, sir, I'll need the fire and rescue teams on board, sir. I'd normally send everyone but, given the circumstances."

"Yes, of course. Sorry, distracted."

"Understandable, sir. How many?"

A pause. "Damn. There is only a choice between horrible and catastrophic. Half and only until 5 am, they must return at that time, no matter what."

The Captain whispers, "You know they'll find a reason to stay."

Admiral Scott whispers, "I know. I should order them to stay onboard, but I can not give that order. We will just have to go into battle without them."

"Aye, aye, sir!"

Admiral Scott orders, "The Captain of the _Antietam_ , now."

"Sir?"

"I am detaching you to cover the evacuation ships along with _Kurama_ and _McCampbell_. It is now obvious that they will be attacked. My only hope, now, is that it will be by a small number. You are in charge of them."

"Aye, aye, sir!"

The training intensifies as everyone focuses their rage into it.

After that, a massed attack by individual Kanmusu is ordered, all 6 attacking at the same time, but from different starting positions. That turns into a mess. Before the 7th Fleet could react as one, now they had to react as separate ships. Coordination broke down and several simulated blue on blue instances occurred.

 **With the attack subs**

 **On the** ** _Chicago_**

"How is it, sonar?"

"Well, sir, the computer can filter out everything but wave action. Then I have to listen for wakes." The sonarman replies. "Right now, I have to recognize and track the wake. I expect that in the future they'll be able to program that, but that is in the future."

"Once you have a wake ID'd you can coordinate with the torpedo mate guiding the wire guided torpedo to the target." The Captain says.

"Theoretically, yes. But the system wasn't designed for this, sir. And after listening to the shipgirl wakes, they are very maneuverable." The sonarman shakes his head, "I'm pretty sure we'll miss the first time. Sir."

"Try your best. We are beginning our approach. Are they doing anything right now?"

"Every couple of minutes they release a ping, but otherwise nothing."

"You located the ping, right?"

"How I found their wakes, sir. Lead me right to them. She has eight escorts pinging randomly and two more that aren't."

"Good."

"But sir, those pings sound weird."

"Everything about them is weird." He turns and says, "XO?"

"We're at 600 feet, twice the test depth of a WWII era sub. We are closing. We are going to have to be very close to guide it all the way with the wire."

"Yes. Dangerously close. But safer than to try a WWII style attack and pointing the boat at them, then firing, which is the other option."

Minutes later.

"We are in range, sir."

"Fire."

"In the water."

The bridge can hear the sonarman trying to give directions to the torpedo mate guiding the weapon.

The assistant sonarman, says, "Sir. They hear it and are pinging."

The Captain nods. "They can't hear us and even if they could their weapons can't reach us."

PING!

"Sir! The hull! It's echoing their ping! It is like the acoustics are not even there! They can hear us!" The Assistant sonarman screams!

"How the fuck!?" the XO curses.

"Magic or super tech, XO. Pray that is magic. We might be able to learn and duplicate that a lot faster than super tech. Try and imagine WWII era USA trying to build the _Chicago_ , even with the plans and expert help. Cut the wire, dive the boat, and increase speed." He orders.

"Sir?" The XO questions.

"We have to find out what they can do, XO. If it's not much, then the next attack will work." The Captain shrugs. "And I was just too cautious."

"Aye, aye, sir."

"But. Several subs have stopped communicating, though. Now, knowing that their sonar can find us, I'm not too hopeful about them."

He turns to the Communications officer, "Make sure the antenna is OK. And update the 7th Fleet and Washington. It is going to be a long night."

"Aye, aye. Sir."

"Sir! The _Key West_! They are reporting being depth charged at 800 feet!"

"Fuck." The Captain of the _Chicago_ states. "If you are using WWII era weapons, obey the rules. Zig Zag, now. "

During the night, _Chicago_ sinks an escort with a wire-guided torpedo, but the _Corpus Christi_ was lost to a lucky depth charge hitting the hull.

 **7th Fleet**

Admiral reads the report from the subs and grimaces. "Well, there went that hope. I wonder how well the Russians will do with their Shkval's. They would have to be unguided, but they should be fast enough that not even shipgirls can not dodge them."

He smiles, "If it is as good as I think it will be, I wonder how long before our copies can be made and issued?"

"Sir?"

"Another thing for you to add to the After Action report."

"That is going to be a monster to write."

"Yes. Good Luck." He pats his Chief of Staff on the back. "Do not forgot the dollar costs. If tomorrow is not the most expensive day in US Naval history, I'll be shocked."

"Thanks alot. Sir. Now I have to worry about the Washington bean counters, as well."

For the final action, Fubuki leads the Kanmusu in a full Desron attack, as soon as the 7th Fleet reorganized itself. Unlike before where sinking the _Ronald Reagan_ was the goal, Fubuki attacked the escorts. Her goal: kill all the 7th Fleet, starting with the DD's and finishing with the Reagan.

It cost her, only Nenohi and Arare were still 'alive' at the end and both of them were 'damaged', but 7th Fleet was 'sunk'.

Several of the DD captains argued that with the Long Lances on board some of the 'damaging' hits should have exploded the torpedoes and killed the Shipgirls. But the argument was good natured. One thing that did happen during the training was the fact that everybody learned to respect each other. Though, there is still some reserve between the Kanmusu and the 7th Fleet.

Admiral Scott calls a halt at 4 am.

Most of the men get to rest and eat, but some get to clean the paint splattered all over the ships. The Kanmusu accept fresh food lowered to them from various DD's, and then clean their weapons.

Fubuki joins in the discussion in the Reagan via her new tablet.

The Surface Warfare officer says, "After that, we have decided that the 7th Fleet will defend. The Kanmusu will be a separate offensive force."

The Admiral nods.

"From previous encounters," Fubuki says, "Abyssal DD's and Light Cruisers are not very bright. They do not react well to new conditions. They also use an optical fire control, we believe. At night, anyway, they are almost as clumsy as you guys."

A laugh from the gathering officers.

"I suggest we use smoke tomorrow to disrupt their line of sight, confuse them." Fubuki hesitantly suggests. "You can monitor our locations via radar and advise us by radio."

"Good idea."

The Air Group Commander says, "We will be loading the helios with hellfires, set for straight line unguided flight paths.. That should do something. They will be flying close air support for the ships and over the horizon scouting. Reagan's helos will be split between her, and the ShipGirls. Guam's remaining helos and aircraft are to be a flying reserve to be committed as needed. Aircraft will be carrying gun pods And they will concentrating against air attacks"

"Squadrons of F-18's at Okinawa and Tokyo are standing by. Tankers are lined up to refuel them on the way here."

"It looks and sounds like we are ready." Admiral Scott declares. "I'll be on the Flag Bridge for the battle."

End chapter

Thank you for reading  
Jeff


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Battle: early morning**

Dawn.

The sky is mostly cloudy, with occasional breaks. The sea state is a still calm, but wave action is stronger than yesterday.

As the skies brighten and the pilots can see clearly, sighting reports come in.

"24 whale-DD's and 4 cyborg-CL's, Sir. North and West of us. They'll be on the horizon in minutes, closing fast." A rating states.

"12 whales and 2 cyborgs South, but they are still an hour or more away."

"12 DD's and 2 CL's East, of us. One hour, fifteen minutes away. Sir."

" _Chicago_ reports that the Wo-class just started air ops, or so he thinks."

Admiral Scott smiles. "Mitsuki was right. They are badly coordinated." Then he frowns, "Or are they? Is this a sequential attack, not a simultaneous?"

"Sir?" The Chief of Staff asks.

"Everybody goes for a simultaneous attack, But. Sequential has advantages too. Both try to get a free attack, one by occupying all the defenders and the other by having the defenders run out of ammo, and getting the free attack, then."

He rubs his chin. "I am remembering Midway. There was several smaller piecemeal attacks that caused the Japanese CAP to run out of ammo and be out of position, that allowed Yorktown's and Enterprise's attack to succeed."

"Remind everyone to conserve ammunition. Today will be long. Watch the ammo counters. I want warnings every ten percent." He orders a rating.

"Aye, aye. Sir."

"Order the scouting helios to attack. Let's see how well the hellfires, work."

"Aye, aye, sir."

"Sir!" A rating yells. "Guam is reporting an air raid!"

"What!" A very surprised yell.

"Dive Bombers attacking the military side of the airport. They are going for the remaining aircraft on Guam. They came out of the clouds, no warning. Came out of the North, North East, sir."

"A second carrier. Find it!" The Admiral orders.

"Aye, aye, sir!"

"Sir. The DD's are visible."

He grimaces, "I can't do anything about her, yet, anyway. How well did the helio attack do?'

"Successful, if you consider we averaged 6.5 hellfires per one hit. Unsuccessful, if you are counting kills, only 2 are stopped, bleeding, burning and look, in the pilot's opinion, dead. It also cost 4 of 6 helos. They had to be close to be sure of hits, sir."

Another grimace, "I had hoped for better. In the future, it will be with training."

"Yes, sir."

"Have the remaining ones wait until the battle is fully engaged. With the Abyssals concentrating on us, they should be able to get close and get kills."

"Aye, aye, sir."

"The two remaining are asking permission to engage in rescue ops?"

"Of course. Just tell them to be careful."

"Aye, aye. Sir." The rating says quietly.

He raises the old WWII binoculars that he was given, although he paid the sailor anyway, and looks at the developing situation.

The Abyssals are attacking in two groups. 12 DD's and 2 CL's per group. One to the north and the other to the west.

Cannons are beginning to fire. The close support Helicopters hovering behind their ships, are waiting.

As Abyssals attack and his ships respond, the Admiral can see Fubuki and her girls, in a line formation, hitting the west group of Abyssals first. As planned.

"Sir. You need to see and hear this. From the Shipgirls support chopper, just before they started their run."

Click. The girls appear on a screen.

"I do not want to die, but. I died first in the last war, so I'm fated to die first in this one." Kisaragi says.

Silence. They all turn and look at Kisaragi.

"Mitsuki, explain things to your sister." Fubuki orders with a chuckle.

"Kisaragi." Mitsuki says and you can hear her amusement. "You do know that we know that. I, for one, am not going to let you die." She hugs her sister.

"None of us are." Nenohi states with her arms crossed.

"Yeah. As long as you're alive they can't kill us!" Arare announces in a bright tone.

They all turn and look at her, weirdly.

"What? Everybody's said that." She protests.

They shake their heads.

"Well, I do not mind." Says Yayoi.

They all boo and hiss at her.

"Hey! I do not want to the first to die in this war!" She explains hotly, her hands on her waist.

"Kisaragi, your death would be a warning to us, that we are fated to follow the Great East Asia War's losing path. I refuse, we all refuse, to follow that path." Fubuki explains. "Now is the time to show fate that we will be forging a new winning path. Today, none of us dies."

Kisaragi asks, "Why then, am I here, not locked in my room, safely, at Yokosuka?"

"That was the Admiral's first thought." Fubuki explains. "But Kongo-sempai and I talked him out of it. Kongo-sempai was afraid of a bad morale reaction to that plan. I wanted you, here, Kisaragi. If fate is hell bent on recreating a losing war, and we actively try to screw her plans" She shrugs. "Who knows what will happen. Now, she has a fair chance at killing you, but we have a fair chance at saving you, as well, Kisaragi. I'll take a fair fight any day."

Kisaragi smiles, and hugs Fubuki, "Thank you, Fubuki."

The Kanmusu yell their approval as they share a group hug.

Click.

Admiral Scott chuckles. Most of the Flag Bridge does as well.

The Admiral checks Fubuki's formation. Fubuki, Arare, Nenohi, Yayoi, Mutsuki and Kisaragi.

'She placed Kisaragi at the rear and her two ship-class sisters in front of her. She meant it about Kisaragi.' He grins, then frowns. 'I wished she had followed my advice and gone Arare, Nenohi and then her. She could react to surprises better, from the middle. She should have learned from our training session, the lead ship will be the first to get overwhelmed. But the Japanese habit of the Flagship leading the formation won out.'

Admiral Scott looks out over the battle, hears his staff behind him coordinating the battle. The Abyssal magic is not messing up his intra-ship commo. His ships are reacting better and faster than the Abyssals.

The training was well worth a sleepless night.

The simple fact that is now daylight helps morale. His men can spot the Abyssals much further away than they could spot the Kanmusu at night.

Though, being able to spot the Abyssals does not greatly affect the battle. Abyssals are much smaller than a ship and low in the water. The lookouts on the DDs mast can spot them, but relaying the information in the detail needed to hit them at a distance is a problem.

What training the US Navy does in optical only tracking and aiming, is limited. In order to get any hits the modern DD's have to let the range drop to at most around a thousand meters. As the battle goes on, the range drops to a few hundred meters.

The Abyssals have to close the range, as well. They are firing very low to the ocean. The swells and waves can block their view of the DD unless they close. Also, they are new and inexperienced at war, and need to close to get hits.

His ships CIWS are capable of shooting down artillery projectiles. They are doing that. The problem is the Abyssal DD's are firing a lot of shells at, for a sea battle, very close range. He just does not have enough time for the CIWS weapons on hand to hit every one before they land.

So there are leakers. He can feel a shell hit the _Ronald Reagan_. And again.

"Torpedoes in the water! Dozens! Computers are tracking. Sorting. Many are not, repeat, not on target. ASROC firing at Threatening. Sir. Many of them are just acting wrong. Second wave in the water!" A rating says.

Eventually, "waiting. waiting. No more. Sir, looks like their out."

He smiles as his ships anti-torpedo weapons work as they should. "We can see their rounds via radar, so it was likely we could see their torpedoes as well. Now, it is a gun battle." He says to himself.

'Though, the numbers of torpedoes that they fired is worrisome. Luckily our computers could predict the ones that would hit and we could concentrate on those few.' He thinks. ' Can we stop another attack like plus an airstrike, that is sure to include torpedos?'

He glances at the inventory of ASROC's His ships were stocked against non-magical opponents. The number is not large. "Maybe, maybe not. It'll depend on their skill levels. Still, a lot of them ran weirdly, so they have some bug in their torpedoed design.'

He grins, 'We can only be grateful it looks like they decided to copy our early war Mark 14's, bugs and all.'

It helps that the Abyssal DD's are as stupid and as slow to reach as Fubuki predicated. The 22 remaining Abyssal DD's are tasked with the destruction of the _Ronald Reagan,_ so they only reply to the US DD's and the Kanmusu attacks with their AA guns.

Then there is Fubuki coming up their flank, all 6 of her DD's focusing on one DD at a time. Fubuki, as planned, is saving her ships torpedoes, as she knows it will be a long day. And while, the US DD's do have additional ammo for her, the only practice sessions at reloading under weigh, was in Tokyo Bay under ideal conditions.

The 4 Abyssal CL's are tasked with attacking the Kanmusu. But, they are tasked to fight individually, not as a group. 4 light cruisers vs 6 destroyers is a win for the cruisers. But, 6 destroyers vs 1 light cruiser is a win for the destroyers.

Then there are his helicopters.

The reports of the earlier helicopter attack are showing. They are not getting close enough for guaranteed hits, and the Abyssal DD's are well trained enough to notice and attack them with their AA. But, they are getting hits.

On the other hand, it looks like it takes one hit by a cannon, or a hellfire is needed to break the Abyssal forcefield, then another hit is needed to hurt them. Then, it looks like it takes two or three hits before the Abyssal DD stops firing its cannon. Admiral Scott's personal guess it takes about five solid hits from his weapons to get a mission kill or better.

And when he looks at the ammo counters, he winces. The US DD's with their makeshift aiming system, just is not good enough. They using an average of 5% of their magazine per kill.

The Kanmusu, on the other hand, are only taking two solid hits to get the same results. Arare, Nenohi and Fubuki with their twin cannons are the best ships on the field of battle. They are missing some their attacks, as well. But, Fubuki is one the most experienced Kanmusu, and the others have had at least one encounter against the Abyssals.

It is taking more time than he anticipated, killing ships via shell fire is not as quick as a ship-killer missile.

But.

"Looking good." He murmurs, looking through the binoculars.

"Sir?"

"Assuming no golden BB, we will win this fight easily. And assuming the others follow similar orders, we should win that battle as well. The rage and anger everyone is feeling over the airport strike, is countering that fear effect field."

"Yes, that's what the initial reports say. The airstrike?" His Chief of Staff asks.

Admiral Scott shrugs, "From yesterday, it looks like Abyssal magic roughly equals modern tech in the air, as long as we can see them. The Reagan probably will not be able to carry out flight ops when it is over, and we'll lose a major part of our CAP. But she is going to shatter her air group on us."

He lowers the binoculars, "With new fighters from Okinawa and Tokyo, plus Guam's airfields, I'd even be tempted to stay and test **Wo** , again. But, not with that second carrier in the area. As soon as we finish with all the Abyssals we see, we'll begin the retreat to Tokyo. This should give the evacuation convoy the time they need."

"Aye, aye, sir."

Then, the light cruisers in the north group realize what is happening to the west group. Instead of charging at the Kanmusu, as they were doing, they turn and attack the _Shiloh_ , his remaining cruiser.

Fubuki follows the plan and continues to attack the northern group DD's.

The light cruisers are bigger and tougher than the DD's.

The Shiloh, her helio, the other remaining helios and the DD's that were firing at the west group start to attack the two light cruisers.

Their force field is stronger. _Shiloh_ burns thru all of its CIWS with only minimal effect. The 127mm shells from his ships bounce off. The hellfires still have some effect, but not the same as with the DD's

Their marksmanship is better than the DD's. Reagan took some hits, he could feel them, but only because of the sheer number of shells headed at her.

Then they close and the CL's are hitting the **Shiloh** at point blank range.

He watches as the two light cruisers kill a modern cruiser, with only minimal damage to themselves from the combined fire of 1 Cruiser, 3 DD's and at least twenty Hellfires.

He hears the _Barry_ 's captain trying to set up a ram.

The only that saves her from sinking in pieces is Kisaragi. She broke away from the formation, taking Mitsuki and Yayoi with her.

Kisaragi and Mitsuki use their torpedoes and sink the Light Cruisers, as they began to focus on the _Barry._

The dawn battle is over. Dead and burning Abyssal's litter the sea.

"Damn."

Click. "How is the Reagan, Captain." He asks.

"I have three penetrations through the hull, nothing vital was hit, however. One hit on the port side of the flight deck. Another at the front the flight deck." The Captain of the Ronald Reagan says, "A month ago, I would have said, no flight ops and a year in drydock. Now. Give me a half-hour to push the trash off and do a FOD walk and the _Ronald Reagan_ will be back in action. Sir."

"Good. What I expected to hear. My compliments to your crew."

"Thank you, sir. Now, if you'll excuse me."

Click.

"Damage reports, sir. It looks like everyone, but Kisaragi took some damage. Light damage, mainly hits from 20, 28 and 40mm."

A nod.

"Sir. The Captain of the _Shiloh_."

"Steve?" The Admiral asks.

Cough. Cough. "It looks bad, sir. Whatever they were firing went through her like a knife thru butter. But, we build them tough. I'll need some help, but I should be able to save her."

"What speed can you make?"

"Only five knots, sir. The back half of the ship took the worse of it. I still haven't heard from all the engineering compartments."

"That is what it looks like from here. I'll have the _Barry_ come along side."

"Thank you, sir."

Click.

"Order the _Barry_ alongside the _Shiloh_ , please."

When that order is broadcast, though.

"No! Admiral! That is wrong!" Screams Fubuki.

"Fubuki?"

"There have to be subs in the area!" Fubuki cries.

"Sir! CAP can see Wo's airstrike exiting the clouds!"

"Belay that order! Prepare for an airstrike!" Admiral Scott yells.

 _'Chicago_ must have seen the end to flight ops, not the beginning. Damn.' The Admiral of the 7th Fleet thinks.

"Sir! Report from Guam, that albino cyborg woman, the Shipgirls call Ru, is shelling the island!"

"Sir! Report from the _Antietam_. Subs have fired torpedoes and his scouts have spotted an approaching DD group."

'She is in control of this battle, not me. This is a sequential battle and her timing is spot on. Everything is designed to hit now, to overwhelm my ability to command and control. Now is the time to prove I'm as good as everybody says.' Flashes through his mind.

"OK. Everybody calm down." Is his first order.

"Now. Guam. There is nothing we can do about them at the time. Record everything, but unless something special happens, that Ru-thing gets hurt or the second carrier is spotted, I do not need to know what is happening, on a second by second basis."

"Aye, aye. Sir!"

" _Antietam_. Her ASROC's will work and there are three ships there. They should be able to kill a small group, using the tactics and knowledge we gained here. If an evacuation ship is damaged or sinking, rescue survivors."

"Aye, aye, sir!"

"Get everybody here firing at the sky, but watch your ammo counters. Reloading the CIWS is not a quick process. We are going to need some rounds left to handle the next batch of destroyers." All the orders are given in a calm, controlled voice.

"Aye, aye, sir!"

The next half hour or so is full of confusing scenes, as one the most intense air battles in decades occurs.

The various ship to air missiles fired by the ships generally miss. But they do disrupt formations, so there is some benefit, although that disruption goes both ways.

F-18's attempt to use their air to air missiles in a straight lines unguided mode, but miss. They do get close, and in the pilot's opinion, with practice they will achieve hits in the future. Most were ordered to sleep last night, so they would fresh today, so the amount of simulator time they had was minimal.

The F-18's try to use their greater speed and altitude to dive, hit with a gun and pull away from any pursuit. They find out, though, within the Abyssal flight envelope, they much more maneuverable, so they can spin around and fire at the speeding F-18's, and for short bursts they can keep up the F-18. How they can do this is unknown.

There is also the problem of time. It takes times for an jet to swing back around to get in position to attack again. Most of the F-18's only have time for one pass before the attack begins.

All of ships and ship girls firing at the planes are using eyeball guided weapons.

The modern ships fire shells with timed fuses, contact fuses, and use cargo shells with improvised parachute equipped contact fused submunitions with their 127mm cannons.

The CIWS and the hand aimed single guns that have been hurriedly added fire skyward. The CIWS have 100 round cut-off, to delay how quickly they run out of ammo.

The Captain of the Reagan tests the stability of the ship, twisting and turning the carrier first one way, then a another. All while the engineer is trying to find more horsepower to power through the shafts.

The Kanmusu add their cannon and AA, but that was never a Japanese strength, and they haven't had the time,( or truthfully the raw knowledge, Akashi is still too busy setting up the basic fairy powered infrastructure to work on her ideas), to upgrade their basic armament. Still, they are aiming and firing normally, not with the makeshifts the US are beings forced to use.

It's a good effort, but it is by people and ships that are still untrained, using weapons in ways they were not designed for.

What saves the _Ronald Reagan_ is the inexperience of Wo's air group.

They make mistakes.

Everything from the stupid, accidentally releasing the bombs too soon, the inexperience, flat out missing the Reagan, to the being too smart, mis guessing a Zig for a Zag.

Only four torpedoes hit the Reagan's port side, luckily two are duds. Only three bombs shatter her flight deck.  
 **  
-**

 _Chicago_ four miles and 900 feet under the surface, trying to hide from another depth charge attack, from Wo.

"Feel that." The Captain whispers, as he has ordered WWII style running quietly to be instituted.

"Yes. She is angry." His XO whisper, both are dripping wet from sweat, the air conditioning is off.

"Reagan must still be alive."

"She is going to change that. No matter what the cost."

"We have to get out of here. Dive to 1200 feet and set course for Pearl."

 **-**

"Sir. The Captain of the Reagan." The rating says quietly as the Abyssal planes leave the area.

"Captain."

"Admiral." A breath. "I must inform you that the _Ronald Reagan_ can not engage in fixed wing Flight ops. It will take a few hours, I'll have a better estimate in fifteen minutes, for a patch to get laid so I can engage in limited Helicopter ops. Sir."

"Understand. The ship?"

"Dockyard. A year? Two? Nothing really vital was hit, but."

"Can you still maintain 30 knots and maneuver as needed?"

A pause, a murmur, "Yes, Admiral. But any future hits…."

"Understood. No guarantees."

"Will you transfer your flag?"

"No. You still have the best communication and electronics available. If _Shiloh_ was useable, I still wouldn't."

"Thank you, sir."

"Do not think me yet. You will still be the target."

"Understood. But, I do not see how to avoid that."

"Neither do I."

Click.

"Have the F-18's with rounds left to chase after and finish off the enemy planes. Keep, oh, a dozen or so nearby, just in case." The Admiral orders.

"Aye, aye, sir!" The Air Group Commanders says.

"Order the F-18's that if they are out of ammo, they are to hit the tankers and fly to Tokyo. Otherwise fly CAP over the Reagan."

"Aye, aye, sir."

"Have the Helicopters land on the DD's to refuel and rearm."

"Aye, aye, sir."

He closes his eyes. "How many are left?" he says softly.

"Helicopters:. We lost 6. Still have 12 around us. All with no ammo."

He nods.

"F-18's. There are forty two still in the air, sir. We are trying to put together what happened to the others."

The Flag Bridge groans at that number.

"24 still have rounds for their guns, but 9 of them only have only a couple seconds worth left. We are keeping the 12 with the most rounds over us, the others are going to use up their rounds on the enemy aircraft, then head for Japan. The CAP Fighters will be released three at a time to refuel."

"Sir! The DD's are on the horizon."

"It took that long?" The Admiral shakes his head. "Ok. Belay the Helicopter order, they would just be sitting bombs. Tell them to bluff to DD's hopefully that will cause some distraction."

"Aye, aye, sir"

"Any fighter that is out of ammo and still has fuel I want them to buzz them as well, make them think that you have something that can hurt them. All fighters with ammo are not to engage the DD's."

"Aye, aye. Sir"

"Fubuki."

"Sir."

"Can you do it again?'

"Have to, sir. We'll be able to use our torps this time, that should help."

"Yes. And we are more experienced, that will help." He glances at the ammo counters and winces. "Those last few DD's are going to be a bitch. Whither we run out of ammo or enemy DD's first is a toss up."

"Sir! More Abyssal planes!"

Everybody goes to edge of the Flag Bridge to look at them. "The second carrier?" Admiral Scott says as he raises his binoculars .

"Sir. One of the fighters in reporting battle damage on them. They must be from the first wave."

"Why?" A pause. "They do not care about their pilots. Oh, Shit. Expendable."

He yells. "They are going to Kamikaze us! Hit them now! With everything!"

This Time **_Wo_** is not leaving anything to chance. She is controlling her imps directly. Her will forces them to dive on the _Ronald Reagan_.

7th Fleet tries to stop them. The Kanmusu tries. The fighters try, maybe if all of them was over the Reagan things would have been different, but half the available planes are out of position. As it is some planes deliberately ram the Abyssal dive bombers trying to stop the attack.

But, out of the explosions, fireballs and the raining debris, a wounded dive bomber appears.

 ** _Wo_** successfully directs it to where she wants.

The _Ronald Reagan's_ Island is hit.

Directly on her Flag Bridge.

 ** _Wo_** smiles, her opponent is dead.

End Chapter

 ** _Wo's Point of View amendment._**

This battle has served its purpose, to field test the Abyssal Navy.

She goes over what she learned.

The modern anti-torpedo defenses are better than expected. But, better, less buggy models are due to arrive soon. And there are plans to modify their torpedoes to imp piloted Kaitens, which will give them anti-tech magic, are in the pipeline, she'll notify her Princess that those plans must be accelerated.

The ability to shoot down shells was known, but discounted. Still, the weapons are of limited duration and power, so their effect in a major battle can be ignored. It will mean that the planned small harassing attacks will not cause as much damage as planned. But, the real purpose of those attacks is to give humans the hope of victory, so in the end, the crushing of that hope will be so much more pleasurable. So denying humans that weapon is not necessary.

The humans were using some guided missiles weapons. That could not be allowed. How were they targeting, with no data? Hmmm. Their wakes? That is the only she noticed when she was landing her planes.

So. They can target wakes. Hmm. The ability to deny the humans data can be used to introduce false data. It is harder and takes some intelligence, than simply denying data. The princesses wanted to use that ability themselves, creating illusions to increase their fear and horror. But. With some effort and training even a light cruiser can mask its wake. She does not think that destroyers have the intelligence, but they do not really matter.

She should be able, with practice, project a false image several hundred meters away from her true location, or project additional images of herself. That might be better. Causing the humans to believe that their fleet of Capital Ships are bigger than it is might useful.

She will note it in her After Action report and request that the princesses release that ability for general use.

The sheer amount of human communications surprised her. Her Princess has promised her that they will crack their codes soon and it had amused her to think about reading their mail. However, denying them the ability to communicate strikes her as the better solution. Some form of magic-powered multi-frequency jammer can be developed.

It will, probably, negate their radio communication, as well. However the surface forces can use visual messaging, and she can use telepathy to control her air group. The amount of concentration that takes means she loses situational awareness of her body, but with the proven effectiveness of the anti-tech magic, that is something she will risk, now.

The speed and altitude limits of her air group was known. But, seeing the human planes fly unmolested is more irritating than she expected. New models are in the pipeline, but, still. She will have to modify her planes so she can super-charge them with her magic, that will allow her to temporarily expand their abilities and shot down those high altitude spies and allow her airplanes to go supersonic. Even, she thinks, a low hanging satellite shot downs might be achievable, certainly the princesses will have that power. It will mean the permanent destruction of the imp, which will cause replacement problems.

She will not be able to reconstitute them, they will have to replaced with newly trained imps and new construction, But, she can not allow those high-flying spies to continue and the ease in which their fighters out flew hers will be stopped.

A pity that against Kanmusu planes it would be not useable. The Kanmusu, like her, have the ability to negate that super-charging. Which is why it is not already available.

The effectiveness of the helicopters was worrisome, but plans to increase the AA on all classes are on the table. It will need to be speed up.

The knew about the large air tankers, but seeing them in action, has caused her to increase the priority on their destruction, especially the manufacturing centers. Destroying the major ship building locations was very high on her target list. But now, aircraft manufacturing goes higher. Destroying them before effective defenses are in place is what she will do.

The damage to her air group was more than anticipated. It will mean that the plan to trap the Kanmusu, as they come running to the rescue tomorrow will have to be canceled. Which upon further thought is probably a good idea. Her Princess will want to kill Akagi herself, if she were to do it, **_Wo_** shudders at the thought of her Princess's rage.

She will just have to be satisfied with killing the 6 destroyers.

Still, even though she has changed the orders to her remaining assault force and the developing submarine trap, they were not ever meant to kill the 7th Fleet, so.

She radios Ru, telling her to cease the shelling of Guam, that has served its purpose, and to mop up the 7th Fleet this afternoon, not tomorrow as planned.

Ru, her attached light carrier, heavy cruiser division and destroyer screen are more than enough.

They can sink the demoralized and leaderless 7th Fleet, now.

She will enter the floating dock nearby and begin to reconstitute her destroyed damaged air group. It will take the rest of the day and most of tomorrow to rebuild her air group.

She started with 32 each of fighters, dive bombers and torpedo planes. She has 12 torpedo planes left. There only had to fly the gauntlet once, and the surface ships that were firing at them were not very accurate. Only 10 fighters are left. She used up all of her dive bombers.

Then.

She, and her sister who is still working up her air group, will raid Pearl Harbor next as planned. That will start the soul destroying Battle, Siege and Fall of Pearl Harbor, for the US Navy. Then she will have to contact Northern Princess, bribe her with some planes, and borrow some surface forces, to distract the human forces at Washington. They can destroy the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard at Bremerton.

Boeing will be her next target, not San Diego. It needs her attention, and the Princess in charge of destroying the US Navy has already made it known that she wants a long, drawn out, painful and humiliating destruction.

She had wanted to destroy that insult at Alameda, but she can wait. She is not going anywhere.

 ** _Wo_** , in the future called by the US Navy: Mariana Trench Abyssal Fleet fleet carrier Wo-class hull #1 (Flagship), informally Wo #1, the Kanmusu simply name her Wo, the others of her class they will name according to were they were first spotted, smiles.

 ** _Her future is full of blood, hate, fear and destruction._**

 ** _Wonderful things. Delightful things._**

 ** _End_**

thank you for reading  
Jeff


End file.
